KYODO NEWS - Sep 15, 2017 - 11:21 | All, World

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson urged China and Russia on Thursday to take "direct actions" against North Korea in response to its latest ballistic missile launch.

"China and Russia must indicate their intolerance for these reckless missile launches by taking direct actions of their own," Tillerson said in a statement, effectively urging the two countries to tighten sanctions on Pyongyang to compel it to alter its behavior.

Tillerson has called Beijing and Moscow "the principal economic enablers" of North Korea's nuclear weapon and ballistic missile development programs.

(Korea Media)

On Thursday, Tillerson singled out China as the supplier of most of North Korea's oil and Russia as the largest employer of North Korean laborers working abroad.

Including China and Russia, the top U.S. diplomat called on all nations to take "new measures" against North Korea over its launch early Friday local time of what the U.S. Pacific Command said appeared to be an intermediate-range ballistic missile.

"Initial assessment indicates the launch of an intermediate range ballistic missile," the Hawaii-based command said in a statement, in reference to the launch of a missile that flew over Japan's northernmost main island of Hokkaido before falling into the Pacific Ocean.

Tillerson condemned the launch, which followed the Aug. 29 test-firing of a missile that also flew over Hokkaido and Pyongyang's sixth and most powerful nuclear test on Sept. 3 as part of its efforts to develop a nuclear-tipped missile that could reach the U.S. mainland.

"North Korea's provocative missile launch represents the second time the people of Japan, a treaty ally of the United States, have been directly threatened in recent weeks," he said.

"These continued provocations only deepen North Korea's diplomatic and economic isolation."

The United States remains "prepared to defend ourselves and our allies from any attack or provocation," according to the Pacific Command.