Top diplomats of S.Korea, U.S. hold phone talks

SEOUL – The top diplomats of South Korea and the United States held phone talks Thursday over the recent missile tests by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Seoul’s foreign ministry said.

South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong talked over phone with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the DPRK’s recent series of missile launches, expressing “strong concern” over the advancement in the DPRK’s missile capability.

Chung and Blinken agreed to continue close cooperation between Seoul and Washington to encourage Pyongyang to return to a dialogue table rapidly, reaffirming their commitment to diplomatically resolving the Korean Peninsula issues through dialogue.

The phone talks came after the DPRK on Sunday conducted the evaluation test-firing of a Hwasong 12-type ground-to-ground intermediate- and long-range ballistic missile.

It marked the seventh of missile tests by the DPRK in January alone. The DPRK conducted six other missile tests, including a hypersonic missile on Jan. 5 and Jan. 11 each, two railway-borne short-range ballistic missiles on Jan. 14, two tactical guided missiles on Jan. 17, a long-range cruise missile on Jan. 25 and a surface-to-surface tactical guided missile on Jan. 27.