The Foreign Ministry on Tuesday urged all concerned parties to "jointly champion regional peace and stability" on the Korean Peninsula after Seoul said the Democratic People's Republic of Korea had launched a missile earlier in the day.
An official at the Republic of Korea's defense ministry told Xinhua news agency on the phone that the DPRK tried to test-fire an unidentified missile at about 5:20 am local time from the Wonsan area on its east coast.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a Tuesday news conference in Beijing that the United Nations Security Council has made clear its response to the DPRK ballistic missile issue.
Currently, the situation is "of great complexity and sensitivity" and it is hoped that all the concerned parties should "jointly champion the regional peace and stability", Hua added.
The DPRK test-launched three Musudan missiles this year, two on April 28 and one on April 15, but all of the three test-firings were believed to have failed as the missiles exploded in mid-air or crashed in water several seconds after blast-off.
The April 15 launch was the DPRK's first known test-firing of the intermediate-range ballistic missile. Pyongyang has allegedly deployed the Musudan missiles since 2007.
Xinhua contributed to this story.
