Korea, Japan, U.S. vow united response to a nuke test

From left, Japanese Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Takeo Mori, First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman meet in Seoul on Wednesday. [YONHAP]

Seoul, Washington and Tokyo will work particularly closely as expectations of a seventh nuclear test by North Korea rise, said First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong after meeting with his American and Japanese counterparts in Seoul on Wednesday.

“South Korea, the United States and Japan agreed to strengthen security cooperation in relation to the situation where additional provocations such as North Korea's seventh nuclear test are possible and as North Korea's nuclear and missile threats are becoming more and more advanced,” Cho said in the trilateral press briefing at the Foreign Ministry headquarters in Seoul.

“We hereby emphasize to the North that the path to dialogue is open ... and affirm our commitment to cooperate with the international community to communicate with the North to cease its illegal actions and to return to dialogue,” he added.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, joining the conference with Japanese Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Takeo Mori, also highlighted recent provocations from the North.

“Since last September, the DPRK has significantly increased the pace and scale of its ballistic missile launches,” Sherman said, using the acronym for the full name of North Korea, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. “Each of these launches violates multiple UN Security Council resolutions and poses a serious threat to the security of the region and of the entire international community. “

In their joint statement, Sherman also reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to defend Korea and Japan, including through extended deterrence.

The trilateral vice-ministerial meeting was the 10th since such meetings were started in 2015 and the fifth to take place in Seoul. The last was last November in Washington.

The latest meeting followed 31 ballistic missile launches from the North, including of an intercontinental ballistic missile on May 25.

Signs that the regime is preparing for a seventh nuclear test were perceived in satellite images in April of the Punggye-ri testing site, the site of all six previous nuclear tests.

The three governments also called on the North to respond to international offers to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

North Korea admitted a Covid-19 outbreak in the country in May, and its state media reported that more than a million people were affected. The regime has not responded to offers of vaccines from the outside world.

But North Korea is not the only pressing issue on the trilateral agenda, said Sherman.

“There is nothing our three countries cannot achieve when we work together, from confronting the climate crisis to combating the Covid-19 pandemic, from building more resilient supply chains to promoting inclusive economic development, from championing democracy and human rights to addressing regional security challenges,” she said. She added that the three countries stand together in their support of Ukraine.

“Russia’s aggression against Ukraine is an attempt to change the status quo by force, an act that shakes not only the European but the entire international order including Asia’s,” Mori said in the briefing. “We shared the recognition that such a unilateral change in the status quo must not be allowed in the Asia Pacific region.”

Trilateral economic cooperation for supply chain resilience was highlighted during the meeting, and Cho emphasized the Korean government’s “resolve to actively participate” in the U.S.-led Indo-Pacific Economic Framework and Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), the four-nation Indo-Pacific alliance between Australia, India, Japan, and the United States.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]