US remains prepared to engage with N. Korea after missile test: White House

WASHINGTON, Oct 20  -- The White House said on Tuesday that the United States remains prepared to engage with North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), after its latest missile test.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Tuesday that North Korea had fired a short-range ballistic missile into the eastern waters. According to Xinhua, North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported early Wednesday local time that the country test-fired a new-type submarine-launched ballistic missile on Tuesday.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters during a daily briefing that the United States condemns the missile launch while noting "these launches also underscore the urgent need for dialogue and diplomacy".

"Our offer remains to meet anywhere, any time without preconditions. We're also closely consulting with allies in this," she added. "We remain prepared to engage in diplomacy with the DPRK."

Also on Tuesday, US Special Representative for N. Korea Sung Kim held a trilateral meeting with his counterparts from South Korea and Japan over the current situation on the Korean Peninsula, according to a statement issued by the State Department.

"Kim emphasised US condemnation of the DPRK's Oct 19 ballistic missile launch, which violates multiple UN Security Council resolutions, and called on the DPRK to refrain from further provocations and engage in sustained and substantive dialogue," said the statement.

The US Joe Biden administration has repeatedly suggested that it seeks to engage with Pyongyang over the denuclearisation issue but has showed no willingness to ease sanctions.

North Korea's top leader Kim Jong Un said last week that there has been "no behavioural ground" to believe the recent US signalling that Washington is not hostile to Pyongyang, slamming South Korea for its "double standards" to continue to boost military capabilities.

Kim, however, noted that the North Korea's enemy is the "war itself, not a certain country or forces like South Korea and the United States".  

-- BERNAMA