Tokyo, 26 October, /AJMEDIA/
Senior diplomats of Japan, the United States and South Korea agreed Wednesday to strengthen deterrence in reining in the North Korean military threat, amid fears that Pyongyang could carry out its seventh nuclear test soon.
Vice Foreign Minister Takeo Mori told reporters after a trilateral meeting in Tokyo that the three countries will never tolerate the nuclear blackmail employed by Russia in its war against Ukraine.
Mori, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and South Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun Dong also expressed their opposition to any attempt to change the status quo in the East and South China seas, in a veiled criticism of China’s assertive territorial claims and military buildup.
The gathering was held after a series of ballistic missile launches by North Korea, including one early this month that flew over the Japanese archipelago for the first time in five years, with concern growing that the country could carry out its first nuclear test since September 2017.
On Tuesday, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said during a speech in the National Assembly that North Korea “seems to have completed its preparations” for a nuclear test.
The diplomats shared the view that the North’s nuclear and missile development programs are an “obvious and serious challenge to the international community,” agreeing to work together including through the U.N. Security Council, according to Mori.
The three-way vice foreign ministerial meeting followed one in Seoul in June. Yoon took office in May, succeeding left-leaning Moon Jae In, under whose presidency relations between Seoul and Tokyo deteriorated over wartime labor and territorial issues.