S. Korean, US, Japanese FMs hold talks after N. Korea's ICBM launch

JAKARTA -- The top diplomats of South Korea, the United States and Japan held three-way talks Friday in Indonesia to discuss ways to deal with North Korea's evolving threats highlighted by this week's test-firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin and his US and Japanese counterparts, Antony Blinken and Yoshimasa Hayashi, respectively, were visiting Jakarta to attend the annual regional meetings led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

The three sides met in the Indonesian capital after participating in a series of high-level meetings.

On Thursday, Pyongyang announced it test-fired a Hwasong-18 solid-fuel ICBM the previous day, with its leader Kim Jong-un vowing to take a "stronger" military offensive until the U.S. abandons its hostile policy against his country.

In response, South Korea imposed additional sanctions on North Korea by adding four individuals and three entities to its blacklist against Pyongyang.

Earlier in the day Park also held a one-on-one meeting with Wang Yi, head of the foreign affairs commission of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee, in Jakarta.

Wang, the former Chinese foreign minister, is representing China at this year's ASEAN meetings. Beijing announced earlier that Qin Gang, the current foreign minister, would not attend the meetings due to health reasons.

Park also attended the East Asia Summit foreign ministers' meeting, which involves ASEAN member states, South Korea, China and Japan, as well as the United States, Russia, India, Australia and New Zealand. He also participated in the ASEAN Regional Forum, the region's largest security meeting. (Yonhap)