Q: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. 
  
 / Updated By Courtney Kube, Robert Windrem, William M. Arkin and Phil Helsel 
  
 North Korea carried out another banned ballistic missile test on Friday, U.S. officials confirmed to NBC News, but the missile exploded just after launch. 
  
 "The launch was unsuccessful and exploded in midair," a South Korean military official told NBC News. South Korea is "totally ready to meet any and all kinds of provocation," the official added. 
  
 Two U.S. officials said the missile was short-range, capable of reaching the South Korean capital of Seoul, but not Japan. U.S. Pacific Command said the missile was launched at 5:33 a.m. Saturday Seoul time (4:33 p.m. Friday ET) from near Pukchang airfield, and the missile did not leave North Korean territory. 
  
 The move is the latest provocation amid heightened up tensions on the peninsula. The White House said it is aware of the missile test and President Donald Trump has been briefed. 
  
 Trump responded on Twitter about three hours after the missile launch: "North Korea disrespected the wishes of China & its highly respected President when it launched, though unsuccessfully, a missile today. Bad!" 
  
 The test comes a day after Trump told Reuters in an interview that the U.S. and North Korea could be headed toward a "major, major conflict," and as South Korea announced it had installed key parts of a U.S. missile defense system. 
  
 Related: Sec. Tillerson to UN Security Council: 'Act Before North Korea Does' 
  
 In the Reuters interview, Trump said: "We'd love to solve things diplomatically but it's very difficult." 
  
 Earlier this week, North Korea conducted what were described as major live-fire drills as it marked the founding of its military. 
  
 A spokesperson for South Korean presidential candidate Moon Jae-in warned that if North Korea continues with provocations, "it will be met by tough punishment from the international community." 
  
 Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Japan was taking every precaution after the missile test. 
  
 "The Japanese government will closely coordinate with the related countries such as the U.S. and South Korea at the United Nations Security Council and so on to urge North Korea to restrain itself while we are taking every precaution to face any contingency," Suga said. 
  
 A man watches a TV news program reporting about North Korea's missile firing with a file footage, at Seoul Train Station in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, April 29, 2017. Lee Jin-man / AP 
  
 North Korea has conducted several ballistic missile launches this year. The country is barred by United Nations resolutions from carrying out ballistic missile tests. 
  
 North Korea on April 15 launched a missile but it failed "almost immediately," according to U.S. and South Korean military officials. 
  
 The country has conducted five nuclear tests since 2006, including two last year. North Korea has warned it is ready to carry out the test of an intercontinental ballistic missile at "any time," but it has never successfully launched such a missile. ||||| South Korea's Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, left, talks with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson after a meeting of the Security Council at United Nations headquarters, Friday, April 28, 2017. (AP... (Associated Press) 
  
 South Korea's Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se, left, talks with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson after a meeting of the Security Council at United Nations headquarters, Friday, April 28, 2017. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) (Associated Press) 
  
 SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea test-fired a mid-range ballistic missile from the western part of its country Saturday, but the launch apparently failed, South Korea and the United States said Saturday. 
  
 The test will be condemned by outsiders as yet another step in the North's push for a nuclear-tipped missile that can strike the U.S. mainland. 
  
 South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that the North fired the unidentified missile from around Pukchang, which is near the capital Pyongyang, but provided no other details. 
  
 A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said the missile was likely a medium-range KN-17 ballistic missile. It broke up a couple minutes after the launch and the pieces fell into the Sea of Japan. 
  
 A South Korean military official also said without elaborating that the launch was believed to be a failure. He didn't want to be named, citing office rules. The official couldn't immediately confirm how far the missile flew or whether it had exploded shortly after launch. 
  
 North Korea routinely test-fires a variety of ballistic missiles, despite United Nations prohibitions, as part of its weapons development. While shorter-range missiles are somewhat routine, there is strong outside worry about each longer-range North Korean ballistic test. 
  
 Saturday's launch comes at a point of particularly high tension. U.S. President Donald Trump took an initial hard line with Pyongyang and sent a U.S. aircraft supercarrier to Korean waters. His diplomats are now taking a softer tone. 
  
 On Friday, the United States and China offered starkly different strategies for addressing North Korea's escalating nuclear threat as Trump's top diplomat demanded full enforcement of economic sanctions on Pyongyang and urged new penalties. Stepping back from suggestions of U. S. military action, he even offered aid to North Korea if it ends its nuclear weapons program. 
  
 The range of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's suggestions, which over a span of 24 hours also included restarting negotiations, reflected America's failure to halt North Korea's nuclear advances despite decades of U.S.-led sanctions, military threats and stop-and-go rounds of diplomatic engagement. As the North approaches the capability to hit the U.S. mainland with a nuclear-tipped missile, the Trump administration feels it is running out of time. ||||| A rocket-themed float moves through Kim Il-Sung square during a mass rally marking the 105th anniversary of the birth of late North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung, in Pyongyang (AFP Photo/ED JONES) 
  
 North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile Saturday in apparent defiance of a concerted US push for tougher international sanctions to curb Pyongyang's nuclear weapons ambitions. 
  
 The latest launch, which South Korea said was a failure, came just hours after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson warned the UN Security Council of "catastrophic consequences" if the international community -- most notably China -- failed to pressure the North into abandoning its weapons programme. 
  
 Military options for dealing with the North were still "on the table", Tillerson warned in his first address to the UN body. 
  
 The launch ratchets up tensions on the Korean peninsula, with Washington and Pyongyang locked in an ever-tighter spiral of threat, counter-threat and escalating military preparedness. 
  
 US President Donald Trump, who has warned of a "major conflict" with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un's regime, said the latest test was a pointed snub to China -- the North's main ally and economic lifeline. 
  
 "North Korea disrespected the wishes of China & its highly respected President when it launched, though unsuccessfully, a missile today. Bad!" Trump tweeted. 
  
 The US is deploying a naval strike group led by an aircraft carrier to the Korean peninsula, and a missile-defence system called Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) that officials say will be operational "within days". 
  
 North Korea recently conducted its biggest-ever firing drill and has threatened to "bury at sea" the US aircraft carrier, amid signs it could be preparing for a sixth nuclear test. 
  
 South Korea's defence ministry said it suspected Saturday's missile test had failed after a brief flight, while the US military's Pacific Command confirmed the rocket did not leave North Korean territory. 
  
 South Korea condemned the launch, with foreign ministry spokesman Cho June-Hyuck saying that if the North continued to "play with fire", it would "face strong punitive steps in various levels", including from the UN Security Council. 
  
 Japan has lodged a "serious protest and criticism" to the North, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters after a national security council meeting. 
  
 - Risk of nuclear attack 'real' - 
  
 China pushed back at Tillerson's call at the UN Security Council for it to do more to rein in Pyongyang, arguing that it was unrealistic to expect one country to solve the conflict. 
  
 "The use of force does not solve differences and will only lead to bigger disasters," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said. 
  
 His country, he said, should not be "a focal point of the problem on the peninsula" and stressed that "the key to solving the nuclear issue on the peninsula does not lie in the hands of the Chinese side". 
  
 Russia joined China in appealing for a return to talks and de-escalation. 
  
 Military action was "completely unacceptable", Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told the council, and a miscalculation could have "frightening consequences". 
  
 But Tillerson argued that diplomacy had to be backed with credible muscle. 
  
 "Diplomatic and financial levers of power will be backed up by willingness to counteract North Korean aggression with military action, if necessary," he said. 
  
 "The threat of a North Korean nuclear attack on Seoul or Tokyo is real, and it is likely only a matter of time before North Korea develops the capability to strike the US mainland." 
  
 - Key powers divided - 
  
 The meeting of the top UN body on Friday laid bare major differences among key powers over the way to address the North Korea crisis. 
  
 Over the past 11 years, the Security Council has imposed six sets of sanctions on Pyongyang -- two adopted last year -- to significantly ramp up pressure and deny the North Korean regime the hard currency revenue needed for its military programmes. 
  
 But UN sanctions experts have repeatedly told the council the measures have had little impact because they have been poorly implemented. 
  
 Tillerson called on all countries to downgrade or sever diplomatic relations with North Korea and impose targeted sanctions on entities and individuals supporting its missile and nuclear program. 
  
 The United States is ready to impose sanctions on third countries where companies or individuals are found to have helped North Korea's military programmes, he said. |||||
A:
North Korea launched a ballistic missile test around 5pm ET Friday (6am Saturday Seoul time), NBC News reports. The launch—an apparent failure—was confirmed by US and South Korean officials. One US official tells the AP the projectile was likely a medium-range KN-17 missile. The official says the missile broke up and fell into the Sea of Japan minutes after it launched. According to AFP, the South Korean military says the missile exploded seconds after launch. "The launch was unsuccessful and exploded in midair," a South Korean military official tells NBC. South Korean officials are still trying to figure out how far the missile traveled before exploding. It was launched from an area north of Pyongyang. The test comes amid a growing war of words between North Korea and the Trump administration. On Thursday, President Trump said the US and North Korea were on the path toward a "major, major conflict." UN resolutions bar North Korea from conducting ballistic missile tests, though it's already launched several this year.