Senior diplomats from South Korea, the United States and Japan held telephone consultations on the 21st over North Korea's ballistic missile launches the previous day, sharing intelligence and discussing how to respond.
Baek Yong-jin, director general for Korean Peninsula policy at South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, spoke with David Wilezol, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Korea and Japan, and Takashi Ariyoshi, deputy director general of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau at Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the ministry said.
The three sides exchanged information on the launches and views on their next steps. The ministry said the three countries operate a consultation channel that allows their foreign affairs authorities to quickly share information and situation assessments each time North Korea fires a ballistic missile.
North Korea launched one short-range ballistic missile toward the East Sea from the Wonsan area at about 3 p.m. the previous day, followed by another about three hours later at around 5:50 p.m., according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff. The missiles were assessed to have flown 450 kilometers and more than 600 kilometers, respectively.
