US President Joe Biden and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. (Reuters Photo)

he United States on Wednesday condemned North Korea’s firing of a suspected ballistic missile and urged Pyongyang to engage in talks.

A US Department of State spokesman in a statement said the launch was in violation of multiple UN Security Council Resolutions and poses a threat to the DPRK’s neighbors and the international community, referring to it by its official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

We remain committed to a diplomatic approach to the DPRK and call on them to engage in dialogue, the spokesman said, adding that the Biden administration’s commitment to defend both South Korea and Japan was ironclad.

Earlier on Wednesday, South Korea and Japan said the North had fired a projectile, apparently a ballistic missile, in the first such launch of the year, hours before Seoul renewed calls for talks.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement that North Korea fired a suspected ballistic missile toward its eastern waters on Wednesday morning.

Japan’s defense ministry also detected the North Korean launch, saying the country likely fired a missile, adding that other details about the launch weren’t immediately available.

It came after North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to further enhance the country’s military capability while speaking at the ruling party’s conference last week.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are expected to meet virtually on Thursday for security talks with their Japanese counterparts.

They will be joined by the new US ambassador to Tokyo, Rahm Emanuel, who was confirmed by the US Senate despite stiff opposition.

North Korea - formally known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) - has long accused Washington of having a hostile policy toward Pyongyang and maintained that it has the right to develop weapons for self-defense.

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un held three high-profile meetings with former US President Donald Trump but the meetings failed to produce any breakthrough.

The country successfully launched a new type of submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) in October, which according to Pyongyang had lots of advanced control guidance technologies.

Pyongyang is reeling under harsh UN sanctions over its missile and nuclear activities.

Hours after the Wednesday launch, South Korean President Moon Jae-in visited the country’s eastern coastal city of Goseong near the border with North Korea, where he attended a ceremony for a rail line that he hopes will eventually connect the two Koreas.

Moon said he would not give up hope for dialogue with North Korea, according to his office.

We should not give up the hope for dialogue in order to fundamentally overcome this situation, he said. If both Koreas work together and build trust, peace would be achieved one day.

The two Koreas are still at odds with each other as the 1950-53 war between them ended in a truce and not a peace treaty. Communication between the two neighbors has largely been cut since 2019.

South Korea test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile of its own for the first time in September.