The United States is “prepared to engage” with North Korea after the Asian country fired a long-range ballistic missile on Saturday.

“We’ve made clear over many, many months that we were prepared to engage with North Korea without any preconditions,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

“The response from North Korea has been missile launch after missile launch. We have been very clear that our commitment to the security of our close allies and partners – South Korea and Japan – is ironclad.”

Blinken’s comments came during a press conference with Japan’s Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa and South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin.

He added that the three countries have been working “very closely together” to take appropriate steps to “strengthen even more our deterrence and defense capacity.”

Yoshimasa said that the intercontinental ballistic missile launched by North Korea landed in the territorial waters of Japan and could cover the entire United States.

“Such act is absolutely unacceptable. It is a clear violation of the UN Security Council resolutions, and the international community must be united and take resolute response,” Yoshimasa said during the news conference.

Park added that the three countries are showing “unwavering resolve” in the face of an escalating threat from North Korea.

“Pyongyang will gain nothing from its provocations,” Park said. “We urge Pyongyang to immediately cease all provocations and return to denuclearization talks.”

North Korea responded to the press conference held by the three nations in a statement Sunday, and acknowledged that it had fired the ICBM. North Korea claimed that the missile landed in “open waters.”

Japan’s Defense Minster Yasukazu Hamada said the missile was fired from the outskirts of Pyongyang before landing in the Sea of Japan, the first of its kind since Jan. 1 when a North Korean ballistic missile landed outside of the Japanese Economic Exclusion Zone.

CURRENTPH NEWS SERVICE