US, S Korea, Japan vow N Korea’s denuclearization

The US, South Korea and Japan yesterday reaffirmed their commitment to the “complete denuclearization” 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 Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun and his Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi “reaffirmed their resolute commitment to the complete denuclearization” of North Korea during talks on Friday on the sidelines of a G20 meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, the US Department of State said.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks during the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting Welcome Reception at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta on Friday.

Photo: Reuters

They also pledged “full implementation” of UN Security Council resolutions, including a ban on supporting revenue for North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

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 joint military drills with ally South Korea.

He even bucked long-held US policy last year by saying that North Korea was already “sort of a nuclear power,” while reaching out to Pyongyang for talks, saying he was “100 percent” open to a meeting — a suggestion that apparently went unanswered.

Analysts and South Korea’s spy agency said Kim might have conveyed Pyongyang’s position on potential talks with Trump to Beijing during a recent visit to the Chinese border city of Dandong.

South Korean 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 program in return for sanctions relief.

Critics have said such an approach risks tacitly accepts North Korea as a nuclear-armed state while allowing Pyongyang to win sanctions relief without giving up its arsenal.

Analysts said China might also be moving toward tacit acceptance, pointing to the omission of North Korean denuclearization from statements after Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in June.

Pyongyang denounced a joint statement yesterday by a group of nations monitoring sanctions implementations against it, vowing that “the stereotyped sanctions racket of the US and the West can neither influence the position of the DPRK [North Korea] as a nuclear weapons state.”