Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

S. Korea, US, Japan Urge N. Korea to Halt Provocations, Resume Dialogue


Sun 13 Feb 2022 | 03:49 PM
Ahmad El-Assasy

Top diplomats from South Korea, the US, and Japan urged North Korea to quit its destabilising acts and return to dialogue on Saturday, according to Yonhap news agency.

In Honolulu, South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui Yong, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi held a trilateral meeting.

"We condemn North Korea's ballistic missile launches and its unlawful nuclear ballistic programmes, which are clear violations of UN Security Council resolutions," Blinken said in a joint press conference.

"And we continue to work to find ways to hold the North Korea accountable," he added.

The foreign ministry meeting took place after North Korea conducted seven missile launches in January, the most it has done in a single month.

Its missile tests also included the launch of an intermediate-range ballistic missile, the country's longest-range missile since late 2017.

In dealing with North Korea, Blinken, Chung, and Hayashi all stressed the significance of trilateral collaboration between their countries.

"In this context, they committed to advance trilateral security cooperation," said a joint statement issued at the end of their trilateral talks.

Chung previously stated that part of the goal of this week's sessions in Honolulu was to find methods to re-engage North Korea in dialogue.

He said the foreign ministers had considered "various ways" for engaging North Korea, but it was too early to share them publicly.

"I believe we may be able to introduce them at an appropriate time in the future," he said.

Following bilateral negotiations with the Japanese foreign minister and subsequently his US counterpart, Chung convened the trilateral conference.