June 17 (UPI) -- Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin and Japanese Foreign Affairs Minister Hayashi Yoshimasa on Saturday ahead of a closely watched trip to China.
Blinken departed for his trip Friday night amid speculation that he could meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping after arriving in China on Sunday.
The conversations with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts focused heavily on concerns regarding North Korea's ballistic missile program, according to the State Department.
"The Secretary and the Foreign Minister condemned [North Korea's] continued unlawful ballistic missile launches and noted the need for the [China] to use its influence to encourage Pyongyang to engage in serious and sustained diplomacy," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement describing the conversation with Park.
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Defense issues featured prominently in Blinken's conversation with Japan's Yoshimasa as well.
"The secretary condemned [the North's] continued unlawful ballistic missile launches into the Sea of Japan and reaffirmed the United States' ironclad commitment to the defense of Japan," the State Department said.
Blinken and Yoshimasa noted the "unprecedented frequency" of the launches, declaring they constitute "a grave and imminent threat to the regional security and pose a clear and serious challenge to the international community."
"Intense competition requires sustained diplomacy to ensure that competition does not veer into confrontation or conflict," Blinken told reporters in Washington Friday after meeting diplomats from Singapore. "This is an important, but in a sense, insufficient step because there's a lot of work to be done."
Blinken's trip, which was agreed upon in November, was originally planned for February, but was delayed when a Chinese spy balloon passed over the United States.
