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| This file photo, released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency, shows an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) being launched from North Korea's Pyongyang International Airport on March 24. Yonhap |
Department of State spokesperson Ned Price also called on all countries to fully implement U.N. Security Council sanctions on North Korea.
"The United States condemns the DPRK's intercontinental ballistic missile launch," the spokesperson said in a released statement, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"This launch is a clear violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions and demonstrates the threat the DPRK's unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs pose to its neighbors, the region, international peace and security, and the global non-proliferation regime," he added.
The rare statement from the State Department spokesperson came after North Korea test-fired an ICBM early Thursday (Seoul time), marking its seventh ICBM launch this year and first since May.
North Korea fired more than 20 short-range missiles the day before, one of which landed in waters south of the de facto maritime border with South Korea, known as the Northern Limit Line.
"This action underscores the need for all countries to fully implement DPRK related U.N. Security Council resolutions, which are intended to prohibit the DPRK from acquiring the technologies and materials needed to carry out these destabilizing tests," Price said.
The U.S. official also called on Pyongyang to engage in dialogue.
"Together, with the international community, we call on the DPRK to refrain from further provocations and engage in sustained and substantive dialogue. Our commitments to the defense of the Republic of Korea and Japan remain ironclad," he said.
The latest missile provocations came after North Korea's foreign ministry threatened to take "more powerful" steps against ongoing joint military exercises of South Korea and the U.S., renewing its decades-long accusation that the joint military drills are a rehearsal for their potential invasion of the North.
Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder dismissed the claim, saying the military drills are purely defensive in nature and that they had been long planned.
Price earlier said the North may be expected to continue making provocations, including a nuclear test, in the foreseeable future, saying the country appears to be in a "period of provocation."
North Korea conducted its sixth and last nuclear test in September 2017.
Officials in Seoul have said Pyongyang may have completed all preparations for a nuclear test, and that it could take place as early as before the U.S. midterm elections, slated to be held next Tuesday. (Yonhap)
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