South Korea, the United States and Japan agreed Wednesday that North Korea's intercontinental ballistic missile development poses a "new-phase" security threat.

In a trilateral video conference of defense officials, they reaffirmed a united resolve to apply "maximum pressure" on Pyongyang in a bid to stop its provocations and resume denuclearization talks.

The working-level consultation came four days after the nuclear-armed North test-fired a Hwasong-14 ICBM, the second in a month.

The three sides "strongly condemned the North Korean launch of the ICBM-class missile as a clear and flagrant violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions," according to Seoul's defense ministry.

They stressed that the North's nuclear and missile programs "represent a new-phase threat that's grave and urgent in the peace and security of the Northeast Asian region and the US."

They also agreed to maintain close cooperation to put maximum pressure on Pyongyang in order to achieve the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

South Korea was represented by Maj. Gen. Jang Kyung-soo, acting deputy minister for policy. His American and Japanese counterparts were David Helvey, acting assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific security affairs, and Satoshi Maeda, director general of the defense policy bureau. (Yonhap)