Korea-US-Japan "North Korea's Ballistic Missile Launch Threatens Peace on the Korean Peninsula"

South Korea, the United States, and Japan have voiced condemnation over North Korea's ballistic missile launch.

On the 6th, Lee Jun-il, Director of the Korean Peninsula Policy Bureau at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, held a trilateral phone consultation with Seth Bailey, U.S. State Department Deputy Special Representative for North Korea, and Akihiro Okouchi, Director of the Asia-Pacific Bureau at Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to share assessments of North Korea's ballistic missile launch and discuss cooperation measures.

The three countries condemned North Korea's ballistic missile launch despite repeated warnings from the international community, stating it is a clear violation of multiple United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and a serious threat to peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and the international community.

The three nations agreed to closely monitor the possibility of further provocations by North Korea and to maintain close cooperation based on the ROK-U.S. alliance and trilateral security cooperation among South Korea, the United States, and Japan to firmly respond to North Korea's threats and provocations.

Earlier, the Joint Chiefs of Staff announced that around noon on the same day, North Korea launched one ballistic missile into the East Sea. The trilateral phone consultation among South Korea, the United States, and Japan reportedly took place immediately after North Korea's provocation.

This is North Korea's first missile launch this year. It has been two months since the launch of a short-range ballistic missile (SRBM) on November 5 last year, the day of the U.S. presidential election. At that time, North Korea fired the missile at approximately 7:34 a.m. Korean time, about 6 to 7 hours before voting began in the U.S. Since then, there had been no significant activity, but provocations resumed about two weeks before President-elect Trump’s inauguration on the 20th.