The top diplomats of South Korea and Singapore shared concerns over the use of a toxic chemical in the recent assassination of a half brother of North Korea's leader and denounced the North's ballistic missile launches this year, the foreign ministry here said Wednesday.

South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se held talks with his Singaporean counterpart Vivian Balakrishnan in the city state on Tuesday for discussions on Korean Peninsula and other global issues, said the ministry.

The meeting took place at Changi Airport after Yun arrived in Singapore to transfer to a flight to Sri Lanka where he is to celebrate the 40th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations.

"The two ministers shared the view that North Korea's escalating provocations, including the two sets of ballistic missile launches this year, constitute serious violations of international norms, posing a threat to the peace and security of the Asian and the entire international community," the ministry said.

Yun appreciated Singapore's "faithful implementation" of United Nations Security Council resolutions, stressing the importance of keeping the pressure put in order to reconfigure North Korea's strategic calculus, according to the ministry.

They also voiced concerns over the use of VX nerve agent for the killing of Kim Jong-nam, half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Malaysia on Feb. 13.

It was an explicit violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and other global standards that prohibit the use of chemical weapons, the ministers agreed.

They also agreed to expand their strategic cooperation in bilateral as well as multilateral fields, the ministry said, adding the Singapore foreign minister may seek to visit South Korea sometime before the end of the year. (Yonhap)