The top diplomats of Japan, South Korea and the United States on Saturday strongly condemned North Korea’s launch earlier this week of a military spy satellite, the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo said.
In a phone call, Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa spoke with South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken for about 20 minutes, with the three saying Pyongyang’s launch had employed ballistic missile technology that the North is banned from using under U.N. resolutions, the ministry said.
The three also agreed to continue to work closely together toward improving regional deterrence, including through bolstered trilateral security cooperation, the ministry added, as the partners seek to rein in North Korea’s increasingly potent nuclear and missile programs.