TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan will seek to work with the entire international community in urging North Korea to cease its ballistic missile development, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Sunday following Pyongyang's latest missile launch.
"We want to work closely, not only with the United States and South Korea, but also with China, Russia and the international community, to strongly urge North Korea to abide by United Nations resolutions," Abe told reporters at his office in Tokyo.
Earlier Sunday, Japan issued a protest to North Korea through its embassy in Beijing over the launch, which the Japanese Defense Ministry said may have been of a new type of missile.
Abe said the repeated launches are "a grave threat to our country and in clear violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions."
Calling the behavior "absolutely unacceptable," Abe said further provocation by North Korea is expected.
Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said he and South Korean counterpart Yun Byung Se affirmed in a telephone conversation the necessity of putting pressure on North Korea and the importance of the role China, Pyongyang's longtime economic and diplomatic benefactor, can play.
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