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The
missile, fired off North Korea's east coast on Wednesday, flew
for 74 minutes to an altitude of 6,000 km (3,728 miles) and a
range of 1,000 km, according to Japan, in what would be the
longest-ever flight time for a North Korean missile.
"This constitutes a clear, flagrant violation of multiple UN
Security Council resolutions and poses a grave threat to peace
and stability on the Korean Peninsula and beyond," the top
foreign officials of U.S., South Korea, and Japan said in the
joint statement.
The countries urged North Korea "to cease its unlawful and
escalatory actions and promptly return to dialogue," the
statement added.
The officials - U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Japanese
Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and Foreign Minister Park Jin
of South Korea - met on the sidelines on the sidelines of the
ASEAN Regional Forum in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Friday.
Blinken reaffirmed the United States' "ironclad commitments" to
the defense of Japan and South Korea in that meeting, according
to a separate statement from the U.S. State Department.
North Korea's "continued development of its nuclear and
ballistic missile capabilities will only bolster the resolve of
the three countries and the international community to achieve
the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," the
joint statement released after the meeting said.
The launch came after heated complaints from North Korea in
recent days, accusing American spy planes of flying over its
exclusive economic zone waters, condemning a recent visit to
South Korea by an American nuclear-powered cruise missile
submarine, and vowing to take steps in reaction.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by Caitlin Webber
and Sandra Maler)
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