S. Korea, US, Japan weigh more unilateral sanctions over NK's space launch
From left, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin hold a trilateral meeting in Jakarta to discuss measures against North Korea's missile provocations, July 14. Yonhap
The top diplomats of South Korea, the United States and Japan "strongly condemned" North Korea's latest space rocket launch Thursday while agreeing to review additional unilateral sanctions against Pyongyang, Seoul's foreign ministry said.
The North said it launched a spy satellite, the Malligyong-1, mounted on a new type of rocket named the Chollima-1, but it failed due to an error in the emergency blasting system during the third-stage flight, according to the country's state media.
In their phone consultations earlier in the day, Foreign Minister Park Jin and his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Antony Blinken and Yoshimasa Hayashi, respectively, "strongly condemned North Korea's ballistic missile launch under the pretext of a so-called space launch vehicle," according to the ministry.
Park stressed the urgent need for resolute and united international responses to the North's unlawful provocations. Blinken and Hayashi agreed on the need for ongoing coordination among the three countries in delivering a unified message to the North on the international stage.
According to the ministry, the top diplomats agreed to review imposing additional unilateral sanctions against the North in response to Thursday's launch.
Seoul's chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Gunn, and his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Sung Kim and Hiroyuki Namazu, respectively, also condemned the North in their separate trilateral phone consultations.
The nuclear envoys emphasized that the North's latest launch "constitutes a grave violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions that prohibit any launches by North Korea using ballistic missile technology."
The officials also emphasized that cooperation among the three countries, as well as with the international community, against the North will strengthen even more as Pyongyang continues its provocations.
Pyongyang's first spy satellite launch was carried out in May but ended in failure. The North said it plans to conduct a third space launch attempt in October. (Yonhap)