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The State Department in Washington (The US Department of State) |
The United States on Tuesday condemned North Korea's ballistic missile launch this week as a violation of UN Security Council resolutions and renewed calls for the recalcitrant regime to return to dialogue.
The South Korean military said that the North fired an unspecified ballistic missile from a site in or around Pyongyang on Wednesday morning, but its launch is presumed to have failed. The launch appears to have involved a hypersonic missile, according to a source.
"The United States condemns the DPRK's June 26 ballistic missile launch. This launch, like the DPRK's other ballistic missile launches in recent years, took place in violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions," a State Department spokesperson said in response to a question from Yonhap News Agency.
DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"These launches pose a threat to the DPRK's neighbors and undermine regional security. We remain committed to a diplomatic approach to the DPRK and call on the DPRK to engage in dialogue," the spokesperson added.
In a separate statement, the US Indo-Pacific Command called on the North to refrain from "further unlawful and destabilizing acts."
"While we have assessed that this event does not pose an immediate threat to US personnel, or territory, or to our allies, we continue to monitor the situation," the command said. "The US commitments to the defense of the ROK and Japan remain ironclad."
ROK stands for the South's official name, the Republic of Korea.
The latest launch came after the US aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt arrived in Busan, 320 kilometers southeast of Seoul, on Saturday ahead of a trilateral exercise with South Korea and Japan.
It added to inter-Korean tensions caused by Pyongyang's sending of trash-carrying balloons to the South and its troops' brief yet repeated border crossings. (Yonhap)
