US Department of Defense: "South Korea, US, Japan Defense Ministers Hold Trilateral Phone Call on North Korea Threat"

John Kirby, U.S. Department of Defense Spokesperson
Photo by AP Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] On the 9th (local time), the U.S. Department of Defense announced that the defense ministers of South Korea, the United States, and Japan held a phone conference and reaffirmed the importance of trilateral security cooperation in response to global security issues and threats posed by North Korea's weapons of mass destruction and missile programs.

John Kirby, spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Defense, stated in a press release that U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, South Korean Minister of National Defense Seo Wook, and Japanese Defense Minister Kishi Nobuo held a phone conference on the day.

Kirby explained, "The ministers emphasized that North Korea's ballistic missile launches destabilize regional security and clearly violate United Nations (UN) Security Council resolutions."

He added, "They agreed to hold a trilateral defense ministers' meeting on a mutually agreed date in the future, to closely cooperate among the three countries in preparation for North Korea's missile launches, and to continue efforts to achieve denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula."

Previously, the defense ministers of South Korea, the United States, and Japan were scheduled to hold an in-person meeting in mid-last month in Hawaii, but it was postponed due to the spread of COVID-19.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.