Senior diplomats from Japan, the United States and South Korea agreed Saturday in Tokyo to closely cooperate in seeking a strong and effective U.N. Security Council resolution on Pyongyang following its recent nuclear test.
The officials also urged China, a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and a longtime benefactor of North Korea, to support the adoption of a tough Security Council resolution against Pyongyang. China, which borders North Korea, is seen to be cautious about imposing harsh sanctions on Pyongyang.
“Japan hopes that China, which has influence on North Korea, will act appropriately and cooperate in adopting a resolution with strong content,” said Japan’s Vice Foreign Minister
Akitaka Saiki at a press conference following his talks with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State
Antony Blinken and
Lim Sung Nam, South Korea’s first vice foreign minister.
Blinken said, “No challenge is greater than the one posed by North Korea in this region.”
“Japan, South Korea, China, Russia and the United States have a profound stake in the stability of this region,” he said. “We must act together.”
Lim said the three officials have reaffirmed that the allies of South Korea, Japan and the United States are “ready to respond to any provocative acts by North Korea.”
The three nations are stepping up efforts to revamp trilateral cooperation amid a thaw in Japan–South Korea ties since a landmark deal was reached last month to resolve a long-standing dispute over “comfort women” procured for Japan’s wartime military brothels.
Aside from the North Korean nuclear test, the senior officials also discussed strengthening security cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region amid China’s growing assertiveness in the South China Sea.
Beijing’s massive and fast-paced land reclamation in the South China Sea, where China, Taiwan, Vietnam, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines have conflicting territorial claims, has escalated tensions in the area.
China’s landing of planes on an airstrip it constructed in a contested part of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea earlier this month has triggered criticism from Japan and the United States.
“We shared the importance of rules and norms in the South China Sea,” including the freedom of navigation, Blinken said.
Saturday’s talks came after the three countries’ chief delegates to the six-party talks aimed at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula agreed Wednesday in Seoul to push for “meaningful and new sanctions” in response to North Korea.
The six-party talks, which also involve China, Russia and North Korea, have been deadlocked since late 2008.
North Korea claimed it had successfully conducted its first hydrogen bomb test on Jan. 6, although doubts have been cast over whether a hydrogen bomb was detonated.
==Kyodo
Category: Daily Witness, National
