North Korea threatens future missile launches

North Korea threatened on Wednesday that its latest missile launch over Japan was only the first step of future military operations in the Pacific. North Korea launched a missile over Japan's northern Hokkaido Island on Tuesday, triggering official public alerts for citizens to take cover before the missile landed harmlessly in the ocean. The UN Security Council met late Tuesday in New York and unanimously condemned the action but did not establish any sort of punishment. The North Korean official news agency KCNA said early Wednesday the launch was the first step of a planned military operation to ultimately invade the island of Guam, home to 160,000 U.S. citizens. Meanwhile, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the U.S. Navy successfully conducted a missile defense test off the coast of Hawaii, the agency announced in a statement on Wednesday. Using guided projectiles, the MDA and the Navy intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile target. The test came just one day after North Korea’s latest missile launch, but the MDA confirmed the test was planned far in advance. “The world has received North Korea’s latest message loud and clear: This regime has signaled its contempt for its neighbors,” President Donald Trump said in a statement Tuesday. “All options are on the table.” On Wednesday morning, Trump wrote on Twitter that talking to North Korea is not the answer.