The United States condemned North Korea's earlier missile launch and called for the "recalcitrant regime to return to dialogue," a State Department spokesperson told Yonhap.
"The United States condemns the DPRK's March 17 ballistic missile launches. These launches, like the other ballistic missile launches in recent years, are in violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions," the spokesperson noted.
Earlier, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida protested North Korea's missile launches, stressing that Pyongyang's repeated ballistic missile tests "threaten the peace and safety of Japan, the region and the international society."