US, Japan, S. Korea hold rare military meeting as NK launches missile

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley holds a press briefing with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the Pentagon on May 25, in Washington. AP-Yonhap

The United States' top general met with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts for a rare trilateral meeting in Hawaii on Tuesday, which came as North Korea launched its twelfth missile this year.

Washington has been pressing the uneasy neighbors to work more closely to better counter rising threats from China and North Korea.

Seoul and Tokyo have strained relations over disputes dating to Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of Korea.

Colonel Dave Butler, a spokesman for U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, said the North Korean launch occurred at the conclusion of the meeting. (Reuters)