SEOUL >> China has joined the international community in condemning Monday’s launch of four ballistic missiles by North Korea and urged calm in the region.

“China opposes North Korea’s violation of the UN Security Council’s stipulation,” Geng Shuang, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said.

However, the spokesman also criticized the United States and South Korea for its recent military measures against the rogue state.

“China has also noted that both are holding large-scale military exercises targeting North Korea,” Geng said. “All sides should exercise restraint and not do anything to irritate each other to worsen regional tensions.”

China has traditionally been one of North Korea’s few allies on the international stage. However, repeated ballistic missile launches carried out by Pyongyang have tested that relationship.

In February, China suspended all coal imports from its neighbor as part of UN sanctions meant to discourage the isolated nation from developing its nuclear arsenal. The ban was expected to cripple the impoverished nation’s economy, whose main export is coal.

In response to Monday’s launch, the U.S. State Department said it was “prepared to use the full range of capabilities at our disposal against this growing threat,” U.S. media reported.

“The United States strongly condemns (North Korea’s) ballistic missile launches … which violate UN Security Council resolutions explicitly prohibiting North Korea’s launches using ballistic missile technology,” acting State Department spokesman Mark Toner said, in a statement cited by broadcaster ABC News.

Monday’s launch was an apparent protest against ongoing military drills between South Korea and the US, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

The US-South Korea “Foal Eagle” military maneuvers began last Wednesday. North Korea regularly accuses Washington and Seoul of using the exercises to prepare an attack on it, a charge that both deny.

Japanese and South Korean officials earlier also condemned the missile launch, separately calling it a “clear violation” of United Nations Security Council resolutions, after the missiles fell into the sea 300 to 350 kilometers off the coast of Japan.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, meanwhile expressed “solidarity” with the two countries.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Toyko had lodged a “stern protest” with Pyongyang and that the missiles, three of which fell into Japan’s exclusive economic zone, were “a grave threat to our country’s national security,” according to a government spokesman.

South Korea’s Acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo Ahn called a meeting of the National Security Council.

“The North should realize that its repeated provocations and maniac obsession with nuclear and ballistic missile development would only accelerate its isolation and self-destruction,” South Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement, according to Yonhap.

Japanese and South Korean defense officials said the missiles were launched Monday morning in the west of North Korea and traveled 1,000 kilometers before falling into the Sea of Japan, off the Oga peninsula on Japan’s main island.

Japan is apparently lobbying the UN Security Council to issue a strong message to North Korea, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida told reporters Monday.

Yonhap, which first reported the launch, said an “unidentified projectile” had been fired from an area near the Dongchang Ri missile site at 7:36 am (2306 GMT Sunday).

Pyongyang has ramped up its nuclear program under Kim Jong Un, carrying out two nuclear tests and launching some 20 ballistic missiles last year alone.

In his New Year’s address, Kim had said the reclusive state was almost ready to test-fire an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

In February, Pyongyang said it had successfully test-fired a medium-range ballistic missile — not an ICBM — capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.