North Koreaupdated 55m ago2 min read
Archive photo · 3 August 2016US, South Korea, Japan Reaffirm Complete Denuclearisation Of North Korea At G20 In Atlanta
3 Asian3 West Asian1 Western Alternative1 Western MainstreamPhoto: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Cropped for layout
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US, South Korea, and Japan reaffirm North Korea's complete denuclearisation at G20 Atlanta. They stress firm deterrence posture toward Pyongyang while pursuing denuclearisation amid Pyongyang's rejection.
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G20 Atlanta Denuclearisation
The United States, South Korea and Japan reiterated their “resolute commitment to the complete denuclearisation” of North Korea during the Group of 20 meeting in Atlanta, with their top diplomats reaffirming the call in a readout by the US Department of State. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi pledged the “full implementation” of United Nations Security Council resolutions, including a ban on supporting revenue for North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
Pyongyang rejected disarmament while it contemplated engaging in talks with Washington, and the North Korean regime repeatedly stated its atomic arsenal is permanent and irreversible. The three countries also reaffirmed their pledge to maintain a robust deterrence posture while pursuing peace through dialogue and diplomacy, according to foreign ministry accounts of the trilateral talks in Atlanta.
Talks Speculation and Positions
Speculation grew about a meeting between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the APEC summit in China, with the Al Jazeera account tying the idea to Trump’s repeated overtures and his prior summits with Kim. South Korea’s intelligence agency said Kim may have conveyed Pyongyang’s position on potential talks with Trump to Beijing during a visit to the Chinese border city of Dandong, as analysts and spy agency accounts were cited in the Al Jazeera report.
South Korea’s dovish President Lee Jae Myung suggested in September that Washington seek a freeze rather than the immediate elimination of North Korea’s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief, and critics said such an approach risks tacitly accepting North Korea as nuclear-armed. The DW account placed Pyongyang’s stance alongside its rejection of disarmament, while it said North Korea continues to reject disarmament as it contemplates engaging in talks with Washington.
Sanctions, Deterrence, and Response
The trilateral ministers pledged to fully implement UN Security Council resolutions, including blocking any financial support that could fund North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs, and they stressed maintaining a firm deterrence posture toward Pyongyang. North Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denounced the sanctions monitoring campaign and said “the routine sanctions campaign waged by the United States and the West cannot affect North Korea’s status as a nuclear-armed state,” while it called the behavior a violation of sovereignty.
The Al Jazeera account also said Pyongyang denounced a joint statement by a group of nations monitoring sanctions implementation, pledging 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.” The South Korea, U.S. and Japan talks in Atlanta also included agreement to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and to deepen Arctic Pacific cooperation through a trilateral Arctic-Pacific partnership memorandum.