The US, Japan and South Korea held a three-way call to coordinate their response to North Korea’s barrage of short-range ballistic missiles, after Pyongyang dismissed President Donald Trump’s overtures to revive dialogue with leader Kim Jong Un.
North Korea launched about 10 ballistic missiles from Pyongyang Thursday that flew roughly 186 miles, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. Japan’s coast guard earlier said a suspected North Korean missile appeared to have fallen outside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, according to the nation’s public broadcaster NHK.
Officials from the US, South Korea and Japan urged North Korea to halt “provocations that threaten the peace and security of the region and the international community” during a phone call Friday, Japan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
It comes after Trump stunned Seoul by abruptly canceling decades-old annual military exercises with South Korea. North Korea then mocked the South as a US “puppet” following Trump’s unilateral decision to curtail the drills, while also casting doubt on the US president’s suggestion that high-level communication between Washington and Pyongyang had resumed.
Pyongyang said that despite the “excellent” relationship between Trump and its leader, Kim, America’s hostile policy toward the North remained unchanged.