The US, Japan and South Korea reiterated their stance on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program in high-level trilateral talks Wednesday in Tokyo.
Shinsuke Sugiyama, director general of the Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, chaired the meeting with US special envoy on North Korea, Glyn Davies, and South Korea’s chief negotiator to the six-party talks, Lim Sung Nam. The three parties agreed to continue engaging in consultations “at various levels and as frequently as possible” and stressed Russia and China’s “constructive” roles in urging Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
“We reaffirmed the strong solidarity shared by Japan, the United States and South Korea,” on its stance towards North Korea, Sugiyama told reporters. The meeting also aims to showcase the cooperation between Japan and South Korea despite tensions over a territorial dispute, The Japan Times reports.
The six party-talks between the US, Japan, South Korea, North Korea, China and Russia, which have been stalled since 2008, hit a perceived dead end after Pyongyang demanded Washington to drop its “hostile” policy in exchange for a review of its nuclear program.
