North Korea launched a ballistic missile on Thursday, warning of a "tougher military response" to US efforts to increase its presence in the region.

 This is reported by Reuters.

 North Korea has carried out a record number of such tests this year and fired hundreds of artillery shells into the sea recently as South Korea and the United States conducted exercises, some of which included Japan.

 South Korea's military said the ballistic missile was launched from the city of Wonsan on North Korea's east coast, flying 240 km to an altitude of 47 km at a speed of Mach 4.

 The latest launch came less than two hours after North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Song-hee criticized Sunday's trilateral summit between the United States, South Korea and Japan, in which the leaders criticized Pyongyang's weapons tests and pledged to boost security cooperation.

 The minister said that the three countries' "aggressive military exercises" could not deter North Korea, but would rather bring a "more serious, realistic and imminent threat" to them.

 "The more the US insists on the 'enhanced extended deterrence offer' to its allies and the more it increases provocative and bluffing military activities... the tougher the DPRK's military countermeasures will be," she said.

 North Korea has previously said its recent missile launches were simulations of strikes on South Korea and the US as the two countries conducted "dangerous military exercises".

 US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said any nuclear attack by North Korea against the United States or other countries would end the Kim regime.