The top diplomats of South Korea, the United States and Japan on Friday "strongly" condemned North Korea's evolving threats highlighted by this week's test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).
South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin and his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Antony Blinken and Yoshimasa Hayashi, respectively, held a three-way meeting in Jakarta, where the annual regional meetings led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) took place.
The three sides met in the Indonesian capital after participating in a series of high-level meetings.
"The Republic of Korea, the U.S. and Japan strongly condemn the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile by the DPRK," the minister said in a joint statement referring to the North by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"This constitutes a clear, flagrant violation of multiple U.N. Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and poses a grave threat to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and beyond," the ministers added.
On Thursday, Pyongyang announced it test-fired a Hwasong-18 solid-fuel ICBM the previous day, with its leader Kim Jong-un vowing to take a "stronger" military offensive until the U.S. abandons its hostile policy against his country.
In response, South Korea imposed additional sanctions on North Korea by adding four individuals and three entities to its blacklist against Pyongyang.
The ministers added the North's ICBM "threatened the safety of civil aviation and maritime traffic in the region" and pledged to work together with the U.N. and the international community to ensure that the UNSC resolutions against Pyongyang are fully implemented.
The three sides also vowed to work closely with the international community to block Pyongyang's illicit revenue generation through its overseas workers and malicious cyber activities funneled into its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs.
They also warned the North's continued development of its nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities will only end up bolstering the "resolve of the three countries and the international community to achieve complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."
Earlier in the day, Park also held a one-on-one meeting with Wang Yi, head of the foreign affairs commission of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee, in Jakarta.
Wang, the former Chinese foreign minister, is representing China at this year's ASEAN meetings. Beijing announced earlier that Qin Gang, the current foreign minister, would not attend the meetings due to health reasons.
Park also attended the East Asia Summit foreign ministers' meeting, which involves ASEAN member states, South Korea, China and Japan, as well as the United States, Russia, India, Australia and New Zealand. He also participated in the ASEAN Regional Forum, the region's largest security meeting.
Source: Yonhap News Agency