U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday that North Korea may be seeking attention with its missile launches, repeating calls for dialogue. 

Blinken said in an interview with MSNBC that he thinks North Korea is trying to get attention with its successive missile launches, adding that the North has done that in the past and it will probably continue to do so. 

Blinken said that months ago, Washington made it clear that it was ready to engage North Korea with no preconditions to see if they could find a way toward the total denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

He said that unfortunately, the North has shown no response to those overtures, and in recent weeks, it conducted missile tests, which is "profoundly destabilizing" and violate UN Security Council resolutions. 

The U.S. top diplomat said the U.S. and its allies are now focused on making sure that "there are repercussions, consequences for these actions by North Korea."