South Korean officials said that North Korea fired another missile into the waters off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula on Thursday, increasing tensions in the area because of a series of shows of military might this week.
North Korea's new launch follows a provocative previous launch by the country. On Tuesday, North Korea fired a ballistic missile without warning over Japan - the first in five years - prompting Tokyo to urge residents to take shelter.
The United States and South Korea responded with missile launches and exercises around the peninsula on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The North Korean launch came hours after a Security Council meeting at the UN headquarters in New York about its nuclear ambitions.
During the meeting, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield accused Russia and China of enabling it without naming them.
Two members of the council have blanketed protection for North Korea. She said these two members went out of their way to justify the DPRK's repeated provocations and block every attempt to update the sanctions regime.
Two permanent members of the Security Council have enabled North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to continue these provocations, according to Thomas-Greenfield, referring to Russia and China. Experts warned that North Korea's recent tests suggest that an even greater escalation in weapons testing could be on the horizon.
Jeffrey Lewis, the director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies, told CNN earlier this week that North Korea is going to keep conducting missile tests until the current round of modernization is done.
He said that a nuclear test could come at any time.