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| U.S. Special Representative on North Korea Sung Kim, South Korea's special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs Kim Gunn and Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director General for Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Funakoshi Takehiro meet at the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia, Dec. 13, 2022. Reuters-Yonhap |
The top nuclear envoys of South Korea, the United States and Japan on Wednesday "strongly condemned" North Korea's launch of what it claimed to be a "space launch vehicle," Seoul's foreign ministry said.
Seoul's chief nuclear negotiator, Kim Gunn, and his U.S. and Japanese counterparts, Sung Kim and Takehiro Funakoshi, delivered the joint message in a conference call after Pyongyang announced that it launched a rocket carrying a military reconnaissance satellite earlier in the day.
The North said the launch resulted in failure due to an engine problem and that it plans to carry out a second launch "as soon as possible."
According to the ministry, the three sides "strongly condemned North Korea's act of conducting launches that violate international law, and threaten the peace and stability of the international community."
They also stressed that any launch by Pyongyang using ballistic missile technology is a clear violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions. They emphasized that the North's latest launch cannot be justified in any way. (Yonhap)
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