Seoul, Oct 30 : Senior diplomats from South Korea, the United States and Japan held telephone consultations on Friday to share information and discuss responses to North Korea's latest ballistic missile launches, Seoul's foreign ministry said.
On Thursday, North Korea fired around 10 short-range ballistic missiles from the Wonsan area toward the East Sea, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
North Korea's state media reported on Friday that it fired a 600-millimetre multiple rocket launcher, tactical cruise missiles and air-to-surface missiles during the weapons demonstration the previous day, Yonhap News Agency reported.
Baek Yong-jin, director general for Korean Peninsula policy at Seoul's foreign ministry, spoke with David Wilezol, deputy assistant secretary for Northeast Asia at the US State Department, and Takashi Ariyoshi, a senior official at Japan's foreign ministry, the ministry said.
"The three officials shared relevant information and discussed future responses," the ministry said in a press release.
"The foreign affairs authorities of the three countries operate a channel for promptly sharing information and assessments whenever North Korea launches ballistic missiles," it added.
North Korea's latest missile launches came a week after Seoul proposed holding military talks with Pyongyang to resolve differences over the demarcation of their border, as tensions in the inter-Korean border region have risen since last month's land mine blast inside the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that injured three South Korean soldiers.
On Thursday, South Korea's Defence Minister Kang Shin-chul denounced North Korea's latest ballistic missile launches as a threat to security on the Korean Peninsula and in the region, as he was attending a regional defence ministers' meeting in the Philippines.
"Today at this very moment, North Korea is threatening the Korean Peninsula and regional security by firing a number of missiles," Kang said during a plenary session of the ASEAN Defence Ministers' Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus).
On the recent explosion caused by North Korean mines planted south of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), Kang said the incident amounted to a "clear violation" of the Armistice Agreement that halted the 1950-53 Korean War and a "provocation."
"It is difficult to check on the opponent's intentions when communication is ruptured, and mutual mistrust and tension can lead to further clashes and crisis," Kang said, calling for the resumption of dialogue between the two Koreas.
