S. Korea, US, Japan Military Officials Agree to Put Maximum Pressure on N. Korea

Military officials of South Korea, the United States and Japan agreed on Wednesday to exert "maximum pressure" on North Korea to bring it to the negotiating table, according to media reports.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The remarks were made during a video conference held between Chang Kyung-soo, South Korean acting chief of the Defense Ministry's policy planning office, David Halvey, US assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs and Satoshi Maeda, director general for Japan's defense policy, the Yonhap news agency reported citing the South Korean Defense Ministry.

The parties condemned the recent North Korean launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile pointing out that the test was in clear violation of the UN Security Council's resolutions.

The officials also agreed that North Korea posed a grave threat to the global peace and stability and reaffirmed the importance of coordination aimed at the "complete and irreversible" denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

On July 4, North Korea announced it had successfully launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile, saying it traveled 580 miles and reached an altitude of 1,740 miles during its 39-minute flight before accurately hitting a targeted area in the Sea of Japan. The test was sharply criticized by the international community.

Last week, leaders of the United States, Japan and South Korea met on the sidelines of the G20 summit and agreed to press for prompt adoption of a new resolution by the UN Security Council that would impose additional sanctions on North Korea. France and the United Kingdom have also called for new restrictive measures against Pyongyang.

Earlier in the day, the Russian newspaper Izvestiya reported citing a diplomatic source that Moscow and Beijing were unlikely to support the UN Security Council draft resolution on new sanctions against Pyongyang proposed by the United States.