North Korea fires 'unidentified projectile': South Korea

A week after its latest missile launch, North Korea on Sunday fired off an "unidentified projectile" said South Korea's defence officials.

"North Korea fired an unidentified projectile at Pukchang, South Pyongan province in the afternoon today," the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

The test comes a week after North Korea tested a missile which it said was a rocket capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. 

South Korea's Yonhap News Agency cited an anonymous source and said the missile was not believed to be an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), Reuters reported.

A South Korean military official declined to confirm the report but said the military was analysing the launch. 

North Korea has defied all calls to rein in its nuclear and missile programmes, even from its lone major ally China. It calls them legimitate self defence.

It has been working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of striking the US mainland.

"Today the US mainland and the Pacific operational theatre are within the strike range of the DPRK and the DPRK has all kinds of powerful means for annihilating retaliatory strike," North Korea's state KCNA news agency said in a commentary on Saturday.

(WION with inputs from AFP, Reuters)