United Nations - (AFP) - The US envoy to the United Nations said Friday that North Korea's series of missile tests constituted a "mockery" of the Security Council, in veiled criticism of China and Russia as well.

"These members have justified the DPRK's repeated abuses and, in turn, have empowered the DPRK and made a mockery of this Council," Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said during a Security Council session.

Seoul had announced that North Korea had launched an intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday, but it was likely that this operation failed, amid a record barrage of missiles launched by Pyongyang within 24 hours.

In response to its northern neighbor's move, South Korea and the United States announced the extension of the joint air maneuvers between the two countries, which are the largest of their kind against the backdrop of North Korea's "recent provocations," in a position Pyongyang hastened to describe as a "wrong choice."

Also, the South Korean army announced on Friday the deployment of stealth fighters after monitoring the movement of 180 North Korean warplanes, in a new episode of rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula.