BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei: US Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday sought to present a united front against North Korea’s nuclear ambitions as he met his counterparts from China, Japan and South Korea.
Kerry, meeting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific meeting in Brunei, said that “both reaffirmed strongly the seriousness” of commitment to the denuclearisation of North Korea.
“We look forward to working with you to accomplish this goal,” Kerry said in brief remarks.
China is the main ally of North Korea, which defiantly carried out its third nuclear weapons test in February and threatened to attack the US.
US officials have credited China with taking a firmer line against the North Korean regime headed by Kim Jong-Un, as part of international sanctions. This includes reports that state-owned Bank of China shut the account of a North Korean-controlled bank.
Kerry also met Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korea’s Yun Byung-Se. “The three of us, our countries, are working very, very hard together on a number of critical issues,” Kerry said, listing North Korea as one item of common concern.
Yun said North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons “will never be tolerated” and that Pyongyang will “face further isolation and dire consequences in the event of provocations”.
South Korea and Japan, which are close US allies, have prickly bilateral relations because of disputes related to Tokyo’s colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.
Yun called off a visit to Tokyo in April after two Japanese cabinet ministers paid respects at the Yasukuni shrine, which venerates 2.5 million Japanese war dead including prominent war criminals.
North Korea, meanwhile, slammed South Korean President Park Geun-Hye for “hurting its dignity” with her call for denuclearisation and said its atomic weapons could never be a bargaining chip. “Park let loose a whole string of provocative remarks seriously hurting the dignity and social system in the DPRK (North Korea) while visiting China,” the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said. AFP
