"They are warning Seoul not to go back on things agreed between the North and the South," Okonogi said.
MISSILE ARSENAL
North Korea has more than 1,000 missiles, at least 800 of them ballistic, that can hit all of South Korea and most parts of Japan, experts have said. Its launches are often timed to coincide with periods of political tension.
At about the same time as the reported missile launch, North Korea's official media launched a rhetorical volley at the United States, blaming it for pushing six-country talks aimed at scrapping the North's nuclear arms plans into deadlock.
"If the United States continues to delay the resolution of the nuclear problem by insisting on something that doesn't exist, it could have a grave impact on the disablement of the nuclear facility that has been sought so far," the North's KCNA news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying.
It began disabling its Yongbyon Soviet-era nuclear plant at the end of last year, as its side of a deal with regional powers in return for aid and an end to international isolation.
The agreement calls for the North to make a complete declaration of its nuclear weapons arsenal and answer U.S. suspicions of proliferating nuclear technology and having a clandestine programme to enrich uranium for weapons.
"To make it clear, we have not enriched uranium or cooperated with any other country on nuclear projects. We have not even dreamed about it," the North's spokesman was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, the commander of the 28,000 U.S. troops in South Korea that support the South's 670,000-strong military said the two could easily defeat the North's antiquated army of 1.2 million.
"If North Korea should attack ... we will defeat them quickly and decisively and end the fight on our terms," General B. B. Bell said earlier on Friday, before the reported missile launch.
