Nuclear envoys of S. Korea, U.S., Japan discuss N. Korea’s missile launches in phone talks

Nuclear envoys of South Korea, the United States and Japan on Thursday discussed over the phone North Korea's latest firing of short-range ballistic missiles, Seoul's foreign ministry said. The phone talks came hours after the North fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles toward the East Sea, in an apparent protest against the joint Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise conducted by the militaries of the South and the U.S. Lee Jun-il, director general for Korean Peninsula policy, shared the assessments of the North's latest missile launch with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Seth Bailey and Akihiro Okochi, respectively, the ministry said in a release. The three sides condemned the missile launch as a clear violation of the U.N. Security Council resolutions banning Pyongyang from any such launches, and agreed it poses a serious threat to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and beyond. They agreed to continue close coordination in their response against the North's provocations based on the stron g South Korea-U.S. alliance and the trilateral partnership involving Japan, the ministry said. Source: Yonhap News Agency