White House Reaffirms US Commitment To North Korea's Complete Denuclearization

JAKARTA - A White House official reiterated the United States' (US) commitment to denuclearizing North Korea's "extreme" on Monday, after Pyongyang fired several ballistic missiles in its first known launch since President Donald Trump took office in January.

"We are aware of the missile launch and refer you to the US Indo-Pacific Command statement," National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt said in response to a request for comment by Yonhap News Agency, quoted from The Korea Times March 11.

"The US is committed to denuclearization of North Korea as a whole," he said.

Earlier that day, Indo-Pacific Command released a statement criticizing North Korea's missile launch.

"The United States condemns this action and calls on the DPRK to refrain from unlawful acts and destabilize further," the command said, referring to North Korea on its official behalf, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"While we assess that this incident poses no direct threat to US personnel, or territory, or our allies, we continue to monitor the situation. US commitment to defending ROK and Japan remains strong," he added, using the acronym of South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea.

The command stressed that the US was in close consultation over the launch with South Korea and Japan as well as allies and other regional partners.

As previously reported, North Korea launched a number of ballistic missiles towards the West Sea on Monday, the South Korean military said, as Seoul and Washington began annual joint military exercises.

The joint military exercise titled "Freedom Shield" will be held from Monday to 11 days.

Pyongyang itself is known to have long criticized the joint ally's exercises as training for an invasion of him and has a track record of carrying out weapons tests in response.