The top diplomats of South Korea, the United States and Japan issued a joint statement on Thursday strongly condemning North Korea's latest missile provocations.

The denouncement came from foreign minister Park Jin, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese foreign minister Yoko Kamikawa in their first trilateral response to the North's ballistic missile firings on Sunday and Monday.

The ministers said the regime's continued provocations pose a grave threat to peace and security on the Korean Peninsula and beyond, while undermining the global nonproliferation regime.

Calling the missile firings blatant violations of United Nations Security Council resolutions, they urged all UN member states to fully implement the resolutions that ban Pyongyang from acquiring technologies and materials used in its unlawful missile advancement. 

In the statement, Washington reiterated its ironclad commitments to defend regional allies Seoul and Tokyo, backed by the full range of capabilities, including nuclear, while welcoming the full activation of a real-time sharing of North Korean missile warning data and the joint establishment of a multi-year trilateral exercise plan.

Pledging continued cooperation with the international community to block the North's funding of its weapons of mass destruction and missile programs through the exploitation of workers overseas and malicious cyber activities, they urged the regime to return to engagement.