On the 19th, in connection with North Korea's launch of short-range ballistic missiles into the East Sea, the diplomatic authorities of South Korea, the United States, and Japan urged a halt to provocations.
According to Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Baek Yong-jin, director-general for Korean Peninsula policy at Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, David Weilerzl, deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of State, and Otsuka Kengo, minister-counselor at the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau of Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, held telephone consultations that day and reaffirmed that North Korea's ballistic missile launches violate United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.
The three countries of South Korea, the United States, and Japan called on North Korea to stop provocations that threaten peace and security in the region and the international community, and agreed to continue to work closely together.
According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), at about 6:10 a.m. that day, North Korea fired multiple short-range ballistic missiles from around Sinpo, South Hamgyong Province, into the East Sea. Japan's Ministry of Defense said that about 30 minutes after the launch, the missiles appeared to have fallen outside Japan's exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
North Korea's ballistic missile provocation came 11 days after on the 8th. South Korea and the United States are conducting detailed analysis on the exact specifications of the missiles North Korea launched, and, given that they were fired from Sinpo, where a submarine base is located, there is also the possibility they were submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).