South Korea, U.S. and Japan hold trilateral call after North Korea fires short-range missiles

South Korea, the United States and Japan held a trilateral phone consultation Friday after North Korea fired a fresh barrage of ballistic missiles a day earlier, moving quickly to use an established diplomatic channel for sharing information and coordinating a response.

The call followed North Korea’s launch of about 10 short-range ballistic missiles on Thursday, according to South Korea’s military as reported by AP and other outlets. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the missiles were fired from the Pyongyang area at about 5 p.m. local time and flew about 300 kilometers each toward the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan.

Yonhap, citing South Korea’s foreign ministry, said the participants in Friday’s consultation were Baek Yong-jin, director-general for Korean Peninsula policy at South Korea’s foreign ministry; David Wilezol, a deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. State Department; and Takashi Ariyoshi, deputy director-general in Japan’s Foreign Ministry Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau.

“The three officials shared relevant information and discussed future responses,” South Korea’s foreign ministry said, according to Yonhap. The ministry also said, “The foreign affairs authorities of the three countries operate a channel for promptly sharing information and assessments whenever North Korea launches ballistic missiles.”

After Thursday’s launches, South Korea said it had bolstered surveillance and was closely coordinating information with the U.S. and Japan. Japan also said it detected a suspected launch, underscoring that the three governments were tracking the activity in parallel as the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise between the U.S. and South Korea was underway. Reporting said the exercise had been scaled back earlier in the week after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a reduction.

Japan’s Foreign Ministry has documented similar trilateral phone consultations on North Korea on Aug. 7 and Aug. 12, indicating that Friday’s call was part of a standing coordination mechanism rather than an ad hoc response. In a release on the Aug. 12 call, Japan’s ministry said the three sides had reaffirmed that North Korea’s ballistic missile launches violate relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions and called on Pyongyang to stop provocations that threaten regional and international security.