Kim Jong-un provokes again: South Korea condemns North Korea missile launch, says will boost response ability

South Korea's foreign ministry on Friday strongly condemned North Korea's missile launch earlier in the day, calling it a serious act of defiance that threatens international peace and security. The ministry said in a statement that South Korea is fully prepared to respond to any North Korean threat and that it would boost its response ability against Pyongyang's provocations. It did not provide further details.

A day after Kim Jong-un threatened to 'sink' Tokyo, North Korea has fired an unidentified missile from its capital Pyongyang that landed in the sea after passing over Japan. It was the 15th missile test by North Korea this year and the first since North Korea detonated its most powerful nuclear bomb to date on Sept. 3.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has urged China and Russia to take direct action against North Korea in response to its latest missile launch."China and Russia must indicate their intolerance for these reckless missile launches by taking direct actions of their own," Tillerson said in a statement. He said China supplies North Korea with most of its oil and "Russia is the largest employer of North Korean forced labour." 

(With inputs from Reuters)