The top nuclear negotiators of South Korea, the U.S. and Japan have strongly condemned North Korea's missile provocation carried out on Monday. 
 
A Foreign Ministry official said that South Korea's chief nuclear envoy Kim Hong-kyun held separate phone conversations with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts Joseph Yun and Kenji Kanasugi on Monday after the North launched a ballistic missile earlier in the day.
 
The official said that the chief delegates of the six-way nuclear talks also shared their assessment on the latest provocation and discussed countermeasures.
 
The envoys said the North’s missile launch, which comes around a week after two similar launches, flies in the face of the international community’s calls on Pyongyang to work toward denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula.
 
They also agreed to sternly respond to the North’s reckless and continued provocations at the UN Security Council.

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