Senior defense officials of South Korea, the United States and Japan held a video conference on Tuesday to condemn North Korea’s recent launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile(ICBM).

According to Seoul’s defense ministry, Deputy Minister for National Defense Policy Heo Tae-keun held the meeting with U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner and Koji Kano, head of the defense policy bureau at Japan’s defense ministry.

Concurring that the North’s ICBM launch was a violation of the UN Security Council resolutions, the officials stressed the North’s nuclear and missile activities cannot be justified for any reason.

They also assessed that the three nations coordinated closely during the launch, from quick detection to information-sharing.

The defense officials agreed to actively utilize a trilateral real-time sharing system for North Korean missile warning data, which was activated on Tuesday, and to systematically implement the jointly established trilateral training plan.

In a related press release on Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Defense said that Assistant Secretary Ratner reaffirmed the U.S.' commitment to extended deterrence for the defense of South Korea and Japan.