Gold prices regained some ground on Friday, pulling away from the previous session's more than three-week lows as threats from North Korea encouraged investors to flock to safe-haven assets.

Comex gold futures were up $6.81 or about 0.53% at $1,301.69 a troy ounce by 03:00 a.m. ET (07:00 GMT).

Market sentiment weakened after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said on Friday that Pyongyang will consider the "highest level of hard-line countermeasure in history" against the U.S. in response to President Donald Trump's threat to destroy the country.

Shortly after, North Korea's Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said his country could conduct a hydrogen bomb test in the Pacific Ocean of an unprecedented scale.

In his first speech before the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump said "the United States has great strength and patience, but if it is forced to defend itself and its allies, we will have no choice but to totally destroy North Korea."

The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback’s strength against a trade-weighted basket of six major currencies, wasdown 0.21% at 91.78,off Thursday's one-week highs of 92.42.

Gold is sensitive to moves in the dollar. A weaker dollar makes gold less expensive for holders of foreign currency.

The dollar had strengthened broadly after the Federal Reserve on Wednesday indicated that one more interest rate hike is likely this year and said it will begin to unwind its $4.5 trillion balance sheet in October.

The greenback was also briefly supported by a string of upbeat reports U.S. jobless claims and manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia area released on Thursday.