Top diplomats of the Republic of Korea (ROK) and the United States Thursday held phone talks over the recent missile tests by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Seoul's foreign ministry said.

The ROK foreign minister, Chung Eui-yong, talked over the phone with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken about the DPRK's recent series of missile launches, expressing "strong concern" over the advancement in the DPRK's missile capability.

Chung and Blinken agreed to continue close cooperation between Seoul and Washington to encourage Pyongyang to rapidly return to a dialogue table, reaffirming their commitment to diplomatically resolving the Korean Peninsula issues through dialogue.

The phone talks came days after the DPRK conducted the evaluation test-firing of a Hwasong 12-type ground-to-ground intermediate- and long-range ballistic missile on Sunday.

It marked the seventh missile test by the DPRK in January alone.

The DPRK also fired a hypersonic missile on January 5 and January 11, two railway-borne short-range ballistic missiles on January 14, two tactical guided missiles on January 17, a long-range cruise missile on January 25, and a surface-to-surface tactical guided missile on January 27.

The latest escalation of tensions on the peninsula comes amid stalled denuclearization talks between the U.S. and the DPRK since 2019. Pyongyang has accused Washington of pursuing a "hostile policy" against it.

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DPRK announces test-fire of intermediate- and long-range ballistic missile

(With input from Xinhua)

(Cover: The Academy of Defense Science of the DPRK test-fires a hypersonic missile at an unconfirmed location, January 5, 2022. /VCG)