Tokyo May 10 (TNS): Japan, China and South Korea are ‘in sync’ on North Korea voiced a shared desire for denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula on Wednesday but stopped short of declaring a clear-cut commitment to the United States-led “maximum pressure” campaign against Pyongyang due to conflicting positions.
According to Japan Times report, the premiers of the three countries, who met for the first time in more than two years as part of a trilateral summit in Tokyo, also advocated the promotion of free trade and globalization in what appeared to be a not-so-veiled dig at U.S. President Donald Trump’s “America First” protectionist agenda.
The Japan-China-South Korea summit coincides with a significant thaw in inter-Korean relations following last month’s historic meeting between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
In a joint appearance with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Moon, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said it’s a shared position of the trio that “U.N. resolutions against North Korea must be fully implemented” to realize the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of the regime’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.
Citing Kim’s surprise visit earlier this week to the Chinese city of Dalian for a meeting with President Xi Jinping, Abe said the trio “needs to cooperate with the global community so that emerging momentum for the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia can lead to concrete actions on North Korea’s part.”
None of the three leaders went beyond their basic pledge of denuclearization, although Li congratulated Moon on his recent breakthrough talks with Kim and celebrated what he called “signs of a positive change” exemplified by the recent steps toward reconciliation between the two Koreas. Li also said he is “hopeful that Japan and North Korea will hold dialogue.”
The three-way talks precede Kim’s landmark summit with Trump, which is expected to take place in the coming weeks and would see Trump become the first sitting U.S. president ever to hold face-to-face dialogue with the leader of North Korea.
While Japan and South Korea uphold the position that maximum pressure must be maintained until Pyongyang fully denuclearizes, China is said to be more tolerant of an incremental lifting of sanctions against the regime.
Courtesy Japan Times
