The United States, the Republic of Korea (ROK) and Japan "strongly condemn" recent ballistic missile launches by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), the top diplomats of the three countries said in a joint statement on Friday.
In the statement, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, ROK Foreign Minister Park Jin and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said the DPRK had "significantly increased the pace and scale of its ballistic missile launches since September 2021."
They also urged Pyongyang to "return to negotiations."
Earlier on Friday, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Air Koryo Trading Corp, a DPRK company, Russia's Far Eastern Bank and Bank Sputnik for contributing to procurement and revenue generation for DPRK organizations, as well as a person it accused of supporting the country's "weapons of mass destruction program."
