Iran Press/ Asia: North Korea fired a ballistic missile early Sunday morning that landed after traveling 800 kilometers outside Japan's exclusive economic zone. This country also launched three ballistic missiles last week.
These launches were carried out at the same time as the 11-day joint exercise between the United States and South Korea. North Korea considers joint US military drills in the region as a threat against Pyongyang and has always warned against these drills.
In a statement on Sunday, South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the special representative for the peace and security affairs of the Korean Peninsula, Kim Gun, had a phone call with Song Kim, the US special envoy for North Korea affairs and Takehiro Funakoshi, the Japanese director general of and Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau.
Based on this statement, the three parties strongly condemned North Korea's ballistic missile launch and called it a violation of several UN Security Council resolutions, a provocative and threatening act against peace on the Korean Peninsula and the region.
Representatives of South Korea, Japan and the United States agreed to maintain a defensive stance toward North Korea and strengthen trilateral security cooperation to provide an "effective response to threats" from Pyongyang. 219
