Envoys from the US, Japan and South Korea yesterday said that an “unparalleled” scale of response would be warranted if North Korea were to conduct a seventh nuclear bomb test, while the three also discussed the situation across the Taiwan Strait.
Japanese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Takeo Mori, South Korean First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Hyun-dong and US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told a news conference in Tokyo that North Korea must refrain from further provocations and that the three nations support Taiwan’s right to self-defense.
Sherman reiterated the US’ stance that it does not support Taiwanese independence, but that it does not stop it from working with Japan and South Korea to help Taiwan protect itself.
Photo: AFP
The “United States has repeated publicly that we do not support Taiwan’s independence, but we want to ensure that there is peace, and so we will be doing whatever we can to support Taiwan and to work with Japan and with Republic of [South] Korea to ensure that Taiwan can defend itself,” Sherman said.
At a Chinese Communist Party meeting this month, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) called for accelerating China’s plans to build a world-class military and said his country would never renounce the right to use force to resolve the Taiwan issue.
Earlier, the three called on Pyongyang to reduce tensions.
Washington and its allies believe North Korea could be about to resume nuclear bomb testing for the first time since 2017.
“We agreed that an unparalleled scale of response would be necessary if North Korea pushes ahead with a seventh nuclear test,” Cho said.
“We urge [North Korea] to refrain from further provocations,” Sherman said, calling them “reckless and deeply destabilizing for the region.”
“Anything that happens here, such as a North Korean nuclear test ... has implications for the security of the entire world,” she said. “We hope indeed that everyone on the [UN] Security Council would understand that any use of a nuclear weapon will change the world in incredible ways.”
For the first time since North Korea began testing nuclear weapons in 2006, China and Russia this year vetoed a US-led push for additional Security Council sanctions.
North Korea has been carrying out weapons tests at an unprecedented pace this year, firing more than two dozen ballistic missiles, including one that flew over Japan.
Angered by South Korea’s military activities, Pyongyang last week fired hundreds of artillery shells off its coasts in what it called a grave warning to its neighbor.
The USS Ronald Reagan and accompanying ships last month conducted joint military exercises with South Korean forces in response to a North Korean ballistic missile test in what was their first joint military training involving a US aircraft carrier since 2017.
The US, South Korea and Japan have committed to deepening cooperation, Mori said.
“We agreed to further strengthen deterrence and response capability of the Japan-US alliance and the US-South Korea alliance, and to promote further security cooperation among the three countries,” Mori said.
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