The Japan Times
Senior diplomats from the United States, Japan and South Korea have reaffirmed their intention to cooperate closely on the issue of North Korea, including over its nuclear program and ballistic missile development.
They agreed Thursday to try to encourage Pyongyang to return to six-nation negotiations on denuclearization, collaborating with Russia and China. Beijing is the official host of the dialogue, which has been stalled for seven years.
The officials met in Washington after North Korea appeared to have fired a ballistic missile from a submarine in the Sea of Japan last week, although debris observed in the water indicated that the test failed.
Kimihiro Ishikane, chief of the Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, met with his U.S. and South Korean counterparts Sung Kim and Hwang Joon-kook.
Ishikane told reporters they agreed that North Korea must be pressed to comply with U.N. Security Council resolutions banning ballistic missile development.
Kim serves as U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, and Hwang is Seoul’s special representative for Korean Peninsula peace and security affairs.
“There is no daylight in our perspective on how we need to be dealing with the challenges posed by North Korea,” Kim said, indicating that the three sides were of one mind on the issue.
The multiparty talks stalled in 2008, when North Korea flouted a 2005 promise in the framework to abandon its nuclear program. It did this with a range of nuclear tests and launches of what other countries suspected to be ballistic missiles.
Meanwhile, the Defense Ministry has launched a full-fledged study on introducing a state-of-the-art U.S. missile defense system to guard against ballistic missiles from North Korea, it has been learned…
