North Korea test fired a pair of mid-range ballistic missiles toward Japan on Tuesday night, the State Department said, after President Obama and the leaders of Japan and South Korea condemned Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program during trilateral talks earlier in the day.
North Korea launched a pair of No Dong medium-range ballistic missiles from near its west coast, which flew over its own territory and then impacted in the Sea of Japan, the State Department said.
{mosads}Spokeswoman Marie Harf called the move “a troubling and provocative escalation” and a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions.
“We are closely coordinating with our allies and partners, including in the U.N. Security Council, to take the appropriate measures in response to this latest provocation and to address the threat to global security posed by the DPRK’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs,” Harf said.
The U.S. government is “closely monitoring” the situation, she said, urging North Korea “to exercise restraint and refrain from further threatening actions.”
The launch was the first of this type since 2009, South Korean Defense Ministry spokesman Kim Min-seok said, according to the Associated Press.
It came just hours after Obama met with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye on the sidelines of a nuclear summit in The Hague on Tuesday.
It was the first face-to-face meeting between Park and Abe since they were elected more than a year ago.
At the conference, Obama said the U.S. commitment to the security of both allies was “unwavering.”
“Our trilateral cooperation has sent a strong signal to Pyongyang that its provocations and threats will be met with a unified response and that the U.S. commitment to the security of both Japan and the Republic of Korea is unwavering, and that a nuclear North Korea is unacceptable,” Obama said.
Park told reporters that developments in North Korea were “increasingly uncertain” and demanded the tight coordination of the three countries.
“The North Korean nuclear issue poses a major threat to peace and stability in the region, and it is vital that the international community, including Korea, the U.S. and Japan, fashion a united response,” Park said.