Kim Gun, Director of the Korean Peninsula Peace Relations Headquarters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Seong Kim, Special Representative for North Korea at the U.S. State Department, and Takehiro Funakoshi, Director of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, hold a meeting with the chief representatives of North Korea, the United States and Japan on North Korean nuclear weapons at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jongno-gu, Seoul on the 3rd. /Photo joint coverage
Head of the Korean Peninsula Peace Relations Headquarters Kim Geon, US State Department Special Representative for North Korea Seong Kim, and Japanese Foreign Ministry Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Director Funakoshi Takehiro met face-to-face discussions at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Sejong-ro, Seoul on the 3rd. had It is the first face-to-face meeting between the South Korean, US, and Japanese nuclear chiefs in Honolulu, Hawaii in February, and the first since the launch of the Yun Seok-yeol administration.
This trilateral consultation was held amid clear signs of North Korea’s seventh nuclear test. In particular, it is noteworthy that South Korea, the US, and Japan met separately following the UN Security Council resolution of additional sanctions on North Korea for North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch in March was canceled due to opposition from China and Russia. As the UN-level response to North Korea is neutralized, it can be meaningful that new sanctions measures are being discussed, centered on countries that ‘share a consensus on the North Korean issue’.
In a press release on the same day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, “The representatives of the three countries emphasized the importance of South Korea-US-Japan cooperation in responding to North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats.” We shared and discussed ways to respond to the international community, including UN-level measures,” he said.
“The United States evaluates that North Korea is preparing the Punggye-ri nuclear test site for its 7th nuclear test,” Sung Kim said in his remarks on the same day. “The goal of complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula remains the same,” he said, emphasizing the United States’ commitment to protecting its allies from the North Korean threat. “North Korea’s illegal and destabilizing actions will come at a price and will not be routinely accepted by the international community,” he said.
“Considering the seriousness of the current situation on the Korean Peninsula, today’s meeting is extremely timely,” Kim said. did. “There is a possibility of further provocations, including nuclear tests, so we need to have an in-depth discussion on how to respond,” Funakoshi said.
This meeting of the representatives of the three countries shows that consultations at various levels to strengthen Korea-US-Japan cooperation have begun in earnest following President Joe Biden’s trip to Korea and Japan. South Korea, the United States, and Japan will hold a vice-ministerial level meeting in Seoul on the 8th to discuss ways to cooperate on the North Korean nuclear issue and respond to regional and global issues. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on the 8th that the 10th Korea-US-Japan Vice Foreign Ministers’ Meeting will be held on the 8th, attended by First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyeon-dong, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, and Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Takeo Mori. In addition, a plan is being pursued to hold consultations with the defense ministers of South Korea, the US, and Japan at the Asian Security Conference (Shangri-La Dialogue) to be held in Singapore from the 10th to the 12th. Foreign Minister Park Jin is scheduled to visit the United States and Japan one following another in the middle of this month, and it is expected that the three leaders will meet at the NATO summit to be held in Madrid, Spain at the end of this month.
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