WASHINGTON, DC — Hours after North Korea launched its second missile test in the past week, US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter met with South Korea's minister of defense, Han Min Koo, at the Pentagon on Thursday.

"As with previous tests we strongly condemn last night's attempt, which, even when failed, violated several UN Security Council resolutions, and affirm that this latest provocation only strengthens our resolve to work together with our Republic of Korea allies to maintain stability on the peninsula," Carter said in opening remarks.

A look at North Korea's nuclear facilities and capabilities. Reuters/Amanda Macias/Business Insider The Hermit Kingdom's latest test occurred on Wednesday at 5 p.m. CDT near the northwestern city of Kusŏng, according to a US Strategic Command statement. The presumed Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile failed upon launch.

The Musudan missile is speculated to have a range of 1,500 to 2,400 miles, capable of targeting military installations in Guam and Japan, based on estimates from the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

North Korea has tested Musudan missiles eight times this year. All launches except the sixth one, on June 22, were considered to be failures.

Carter and Han described new opportunities for bilateral cooperation, specifically, bolstering maritime security to counter North Korea's submarine-based ballistic-missile launches.

"A submarine launch poses an especially grave threat since it could catch the United States and allies by surprise," Rebeccah Heinrichs, a fellow at the Hudson Institute specializing in nuclear deterrence and missile defense, told Business Insider in a previous interview.

North Korea successfully launched a missile from a submarine in August with a range capable of striking parts of Japan and South Korea.

Pyongyang first attempted a submarine-based missile launch last year, doing so again at the end of April of this year.

An underwater test-firing of a strategic submarine ballistic missile seen in an undated photo released by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency in Pyongyang on April 24. KCNA/File Photo via Reuters

Regarding the rogue regime's defiant nuclear tests, Han said the US commitment to ensure that an attack from the North would be met with failure had greatly strengthened the "Korean people's trust towards the United States."

"Make no mistake: Any attack on America or our allies will not only be defeated, but any use of nuclear weapons will be met with an overwhelming and effective response," Carter said during the press conference, echoing his South Korean counterpart.

"The United States remains committed to defending our allies against any threat with the full spectrum of American military might. That's why we are adapting our force structure on the peninsula, most recently by agreeing as allies to deploy THAAD to defend against North Korean missile threats," Carter said.

To counter North Korean threats, the US agreed to equip South Korea with America's most advanced and highly mobile missile-defense system, a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, battery.

A Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, interceptor launched in a successful intercept test. Thomson Reuters

And while negotiations to deploy THAAD to the region have been ongoing since South Korean President Park Geun-hye's October 2015 visit to the White House, North Korea's fourth nuclear bomb test, on January 6, and long-range rocket launch, on February 7, proved to be catalysts for the deployment.

China has argued that the North's missile tests had expanded and are poised to increase since Washington agreed to equip Seoul with the unique missile-defense system.

"China complains bitterly about the prospects of a THAAD radar in the neighborhood, but for such bitterness they have no one to blame but themselves for aiding and abetting Kim Jong Un's missile development," Thomas Karako, the director of the Missile Defense Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Business Insider.

And while THAAD's deployment has China peeved, the Hudson Institute's Heinrichs said a layered ballistic-missile defense system among the US, South Korea, and Japan would "provide a deterrent verse North Korea and will be help absorb an initial missile attack, should deterrence fail."

"Patriot is already deployed to South Korea and it handles the smaller, short-range missiles," Heinrichs said. "THAAD, once deployed, would complement Patriot by providing an upper tier defense."

Commenting on the future deployment of THAAD, Carter said the missile-defense system was "necessary to protect our people."

A TV news channel showing an image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on June 23. AP "Everyone can see that North Korea is determined to try to expand its missile threat to the peninsula, to the region, and to the United States ... This is a threat we need to stay a step ahead of and that's why we are making the deployments we are doing as an alliance, and that's why the alliance has taking the decision to deploy THAAD," Carter said.

As of now, a THAAD battery is scheduled to be operational in South Korea by the end of 2017; however, Daniel Russel, the assistant secretary of state for East Asia, said the system would be deployed "as soon as possible," Reuters reports.