Trilateral US-ROK-Japan Nuclear Envoys: "International Community Must Firmly Hold North Korea Accountable for Provocations"

Kim Gun, Head of the Korean Peninsula Peace Negotiation Headquarters, Holds Trilateral Phone Talks with US-Japan Senior Representatives on North Korea's Nuclear Issue
"UN Security Council's Silence Encourages North Korea's Reckless Actions"

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo In-ho] The chief representatives on North Korea's nuclear issue from South Korea, the United States, and Japan agreed through a phone consultation on the 7th that the international community must firmly hold North Korea accountable for its illegal provocations, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced.

Kim Gun, Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Peace Negotiations Division on the Korean Peninsula, held a trilateral phone consultation with Sung Kim, U.S. Special Representative for North Korea, and Takehiro Funakoshi, Director-General of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau at Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This was the first call among the three North Korea nuclear representatives in four days since the 3rd.

The three representatives emphasized that North Korea's attempts to obscure or shift responsibility for heightened tensions by citing the annual and defensive joint exercises between South Korea and the U.S. will never succeed, and that North Korea's provocations cannot be justified for any reason.

They agreed that the silence of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is encouraging North Korea's reckless actions and that a united response from the Security Council is crucial. This is understood in light of the current situation where the Security Council cannot adopt additional sanctions or even a presidential statement or press statement due to opposition from China and Russia.

The three representatives also agreed to further strengthen international cooperation to block North Korea's funding for nuclear and missile development and attempts to evade sanctions as part of efforts to deter North Korea's nuclear development.

This appears to indicate an intention to jointly pursue strengthening pressure on North Korea through independent sanctions, given that strengthening UN Security Council sanctions is effectively blocked.

In their phone call last month, the three representatives expressed their position to intensify efforts to block North Korea's funding for nuclear and missile programs through cryptocurrency theft and other means.

They also agreed to closely cooperate to ensure that clear messages regarding North Korea's provocations are sent at upcoming multilateral summits such as the East Asia Summit (EAS) and the Group of Twenty (G20).

Earlier on the same day, the deputy foreign ministers of South Korea, the U.S., and Japan, who also held a phone call, mentioned the same policy, suggesting that strong trilateral cooperation on North Korea will be evident at the forthcoming multilateral summits.

The three representatives reiterated that the door to dialogue is always open and urged North Korea to promptly return to the path of dialogue instead of wasting resources on reckless provocations.

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