WASHINGTON -- North Korea will continue to face increased consequences unless it changes its behavior, a state department spokesperson said Thursday, hours after Pyongyang potentially fired multiple ballistic missiles in its latest provocation.

Ned Price said the US remains equally committed to the defense of its allies as it is to dialogue with the provocative North.

"We are seeking with our partners around the world ... to make clear to the DPRK that the costs are going to continue to increase until and unless it changes its approach," the department spokesperson told a daily press briefing, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"We want to see the DPRK change its approach in the direction of dialogue and diplomacy," he added. "This is what we have put forward multiple times now. We believe that through dialogue and diplomacy we can make the kinds of incremental, real, practical progress towards that overall objective of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."

North Korea fired a short-range ballistic missiles into the Yellow Sea late Thursday (Korea time), marking its fourth ballistic missile launch this year following its unprecedented 69 ballistic missile tests in 2022.

The South Korean military has said the North may have fired additional ballistic missiles on Thursday.

"We condemn the most recent ballistic missile launch," said Price.

"This launch, like previous lunches, is in violation of multiple United Nations Security Council resolutions. It poses a threat to the DPRK's neighbors and the international community," he added.

On Wednesday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said in its annual Global Threat Assessment that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un "most certainly views nuclear weapons" and intercontinental ballistic missiles as the "ultimate guarantor" of his autocratic rule and will never give them up.

Price said the US will continue to seek dialogue with the North, pointing to a difference between what he called "policy objectives" and "intelligence assessments."

"Our policy approach is predicated on what we would like to see," he said. "And it would be profoundly in the interest of the United States and countries around the world if we were to fulfill the objective that we set forth and that is an objective of complete denuclearization of the of the Korean Peninsula." (Yonhap)