The United States, South Korea and Japan reaffirmed their commitment to the “complete denuclearisation” of North Korea, as Pyongyang continues to reject disarmament ahead of possible talks with Washington.
Speculation is mounting over a potential meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at next month’s Apec summit in China, with Trump making repeated overtures to Pyongyang for nuclear talks.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and his Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi “reaffirmed their resolute commitment to the complete denuclearisation” of North Korea during talks on Friday on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in Atlanta in the US state of Georgia, the US State Department said.
They also pledged “full implementation” of UN Security Council resolutions, including a ban on supporting revenue for North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
Despite long-running UN sanctions, North Korea, which is backed by Russia and China, has enshrined its status as a nuclear-armed state in law, with its regime repeatedly declaring its atomic arsenal permanent and irreversible.
Trump has made repeated overtures to Pyongyang for nuclear talks, while scaling back military drills with ally South Korea.
The mercurial US leader even bucked long-held US policy last year by conceding that North Korea was already “sort of a nuclear power”, while reaching out to Pyongyang for talks, saying he was “100%” open to a meeting – a suggestion that went unanswered.
Analysts and South Korea’s spy agency say Kim may have conveyed Pyongyang’s position on potential talks with Trump to Beijing during a recent visit to the Chinese border city of Dandong.
South Korea’s dovish President Lee Jae-myung – who has repeatedly offered Pyongyang talks without preconditions – suggested in September that Washington seek a freeze, rather than the immediate elimination, of the North’s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.
Critics have said such an approach risks tacitly accepting North Korea as a nuclear-armed state while allowing Pyongyang to win sanctions relief without giving up its arsenal. — AFP
