USA, Japan and South Korea warn North Korea over ‘provocations’

Reuters
U.S., Japan, South Korea Warn North Korea Over ‘Provocations’ – www.plnmedia.com

President Obama joined South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday, vowing to ramp up pressure on North Korea in response to its recent nuclear and missile tests.

Meeting on the sidelines of a global nuclear security summit in Washington, the three leaders recommitted their countries to each others’ defense and warned they could take further steps to counter threats from Pyongyang.

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Obama held separate talks with President Xi Jinping of China, the closest North Korea has to an ally, and said they both wanted to see “full implementation” of the latest United Nations sanctions against Pyongyang.

But Xi offered no sign that China was prepared to go beyond its consent to the Security Council measures imposed in early March.

“We are united in our efforts to deter and defend against North Korean provocations,” Obama told reporters after the US-Japan-South Korea meeting. “We have to work together to meet this challenge.”

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Relations between Park and Abe have been frosty in the past, but the two have been brought together in recent months by shared concerns about North Korea, which conducted a fourth nuclear bomb test on January 6 and launched a long-range rocket in February.

The United States has sought to encourage improved ties between South Korea and Japan, its two biggest allies in Asia, given worries not only about North Korea but also an increasingly assertive China.

The expanded UN sanctions aimed at starving North Korea of funds for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs were approved in a unanimous Security Council vote on a resolution drafted by the United States and China.

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Even though China has signed on, doubts persist in the West on how far it will go in tightening the screws on impoverished North Korea, given China’s concerns about fueling instability on its borders.

Appearing later with Obama, Xi said that while Washington and Beijing disagreed in some areas, they have had “effective communication and coordination” on North Korea.

However, China, considered the most capable of influencing North Korea’s leadership, has said repeatedly that sanctions are not the solution and only a resumption of international talks can resolve the dispute.

Six-party talks among the two Koreas, China, the United States, Japan and Russia aimed at curbing the North’s nuclear ambitions collapsed in 2008.

Xi called for dialogue to denuclearise the Korean peninsula, but also said all parties should avoid doing anything to raise tensions, China’s foreign ministry said.

He alluded to a missile defence system the United States wants to base in South Korea that China opposes, saying no party should do anything to affect the security interests of other countries or that upsets the regional strategic balance.

Thursday’s meetings took place as leaders from more than 50 countries gathered for a two-day summit hosted by Obama and focused on securing vulnerable atomic materials to prevent nuclear terrorism. North Korea’s nuclear defiance was high on the agenda.

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