Yoon, Kishida and Biden meet in Madrid, vow cooperation on North

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Yoon, Kishida and Biden meet in Madrid, vow cooperation on North

From left, President Yoon Suk-yeol, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hold a trilateral summit on the sidelines of a NATO gathering at the IFEMA Convention Center in Madrid Wednesday afternoon. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

From left, President Yoon Suk-yeol, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hold a trilateral summit on the sidelines of a NATO gathering at the IFEMA Convention Center in Madrid Wednesday afternoon. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

MADRID — The leaders of South Korea, Japan and the United States agreed to strengthen three-way cooperation to tackle Pyongyang's escalating nuclear and missile threats Wednesday.  
 
President Yoon Suk-yeol, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. President Joe Biden met on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Madrid and exchanged views on regional and global issues, including North Korean denuclearization, according to Seoul's presidential office.
 
"Our trilateral cooperation, in my view, is essential to achieving our shared objective, including a complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and a free and open Indo-Pacific," Biden said in an opening statement.
 
He said he looks forward to strengthening such "trilateral engagement" while remaining "deeply concerned at the DPRK's continued escalatory ballistic missiles and tests and potential to conduct a nuclear test."
 
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) stands for North Korea's full name.  
 
Biden noted that the three-way meeting is taking place on the margins of a historic NATO Summit, which for the first time included NATO partners in the Indo-Pacific — Australia, Japan and New Zealand and the South Korea.  
 
He said that the attendance of the leaders from these countries "highlights the global resolve to hold Russia accountable for its brutal and unprovoked war in Ukraine" and a "shared determination to defend the rules-based international order."
 
Yoon thanked Biden for hosting the meeting and said it was "meaningful" that they were able to gather together.  
 
"North Korea's nuclear and missile threats continue to evolve, and the global landscape is facing increased uncertainties, thereby rendering our trilateral partnership all the more significant," Yoon said.
 
He said the Korea-U.S.-Japan summit "indicates the commitment of the three nations to enhancing their cooperation in order to tackle regional and global issues."
 
"I hope that our meeting today will position the South Korea-U.S.-Japan partnership as yet another central pillar for global peace and stability," he continued.
 
The last summit between the leaders of the three countries took place in September 2017 during the United Nations General Assembly regular session in New York.
 
During the 25-minute meeting in Madrid, Yoon emphasized that the North Korean nuclear issue is one that must be urgently addressed by South Korea, the United States and Japan, according to his presidential office.
 
While responding strongly to North Korean provocations in principle, Yoon called on the three countries continue to cooperate closely to ensure that North Korea returns to the table for discussions, the presidential office added.  
 
The leaders agreed that North Korea's continued development of nuclear weapons and missiles "poses a serious threat not only to the Korean Peninsula, but to East Asia and the international community."
 
The leaders agreed that cooperation between the three countries is essential in the process of responding to current regional and global problems as they share the basic values of a liberal democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
 
They also agreed to closely consult on ways to strengthen the U.S. commitment to extended deterrence in the region and raise the level of trilateral security cooperation to respond to North Korea's nuclear and missile weapons programs.
 
Kishida said during the meeting that the deterrence capabilities of the Japan-U.S. and South Korea-U.S. alliances "need to be upgraded as part of the essential effort to strengthen the trilateral partnership."
 
"This trilateral summit is being organized at a timely juncture," he added, expressing hope that their joint response to North Korea will be "solidified."  
 
He welcomed an agreement by the defense ministers of Japan and Korea and the U.S. defense secretary to conduct "trilateral missile warning and ballistic missile search and tracking exercises."
 
"Japan will fundamentally reinforce our defense capabilities" in order to "strengthen the deterrence and response capabilities" of its alliance with the United States, Kishida said.
 
Yoon last met with Biden in May, when the U.S. president visited Seoul after a visit to Tokyo, where he met with Kishida.
 
For the NATO Summit, Biden and Kishida came straight from a G7, or Group of Seven, summit at Krün, Germany.  
 
While Yoon and Kishida failed to arrange their first bilateral summit this time around, they met several times over the course of the NATO gathering, including first for brief exchange Tuesday evening. Seoul and Tokyo's relations have frayed over historical issues stemming from Japan's colonial rule over Korea and a trade spat.  
 
Ahead of their three-way talks with Biden Wednesday, Yoon and Kishida took part in a meeting of the so-called Asia-Pacific Four, or AP4, partner countries invited by NATO — Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.  
 
According to a statement released by Yoon's presidential office, Yoon, Kishida, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern discussed ways for NATO and the Asia-Pacific countries to cooperate.  
 
"I came away convinced that Prime Minister Kishida and I could become partners who can resolve current issues and develop bilateral relations for the common interests for the future of our two countries," Yoon said after the AP4 meeting.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]
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