South Korea: N. Korea fires missile toward sea after threat

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff say North Korea has fired a ballistic missile toward sea Wednesday, but gave no further details like how far it flew. The launch came hours after North Korea issued a veiled threat to use nuclear weapons to get the U.S. and South Korea to “pay the most horrible price in history” — an escalation of its fiery rhetoric targeting the ongoing large-scale military drills between its rivals. North Korea has argued its recent weapons tests were meant to issue a warning to Washington and Seoul over their series of joint military drills that it views as an invasion rehearsal. This week’s exercises include about 240 warplanes.