US Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday convened an emergency meeting of the leaders of Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Canada in which she slammed North Korea’s missile test as a “brazen violation of multiple UN Security resolutions.”
“It destabilizes security in the region and unnecessarily raises tensions,” she said.
“We strongly condemn these actions and again call on North Korea to stop further unlawful destabilizing acts,” Harris said. “On behalf of the United States I reaffirmed our ironclad commitment to our Indo-Pacific alliances.”
Her remarks at the broader APEC forum capped a week of high-level outreach from the US to Asia as Washington seeks to counter growing Chinese influence in the region.
North Korea fired a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile Friday, Seoul's military said, the second launch in two days as Pyongyang continues a record-breaking blitz that has sent fears of a nuclear test soaring.
