SEOUL: The top diplomats of South Korea, Japan, and the United States committed efforts on Saturday to put an end to North Korea's destabilising activities and bring the country back to the negotiating table.
According to reports, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin, and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi all expressed disappointment over the failure of a new UN Security Council resolution on North Korea.
The US-proposed resolution was voted on by the UN Security Council, but it failed to pass due to opposition from China and Russia, both permanent members of the council with veto power and close friends of Pyongyang. "We sincerely regret that the UNSC failed to adopt a resolution in response to the DPRK's clear and repeated violations of UNSC resolutions," the senior diplomats said in a joint statement released by the US State Department on Friday, despite the support of 13 Security Council members.
"We reaffirm our determination to further increase our coordination with the international community to urge the DPRK to discontinue its unlawful activities and engage in dialogue instead," they continued, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
North Korea has conducted 17 missile tests this year, the most recent of which took place on Tuesday and included the launch of three ballistic missiles, one of which seemed to be an intercontinental ballistic missile.
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