U.S.-Japan-South Korea trilateral summit on North Korea deemed 'productive, substantive'

WASHINGTON, April 7 (UPI) -- Senior delegates from Japan and South Korea attended a trilateral summit in Washington on Monday to discuss coordination on issues related to North Korea.

South Korean Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Hwang Joon-kook and Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director General for Asian and Oceania Affairs Junichi Ihara joined U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Glyn Davies at the U.S. Department of State for a discussion about "a wide range of issues related to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)."

According to a read-out from the State Department, the meeting was both "productive" and "substantive" with the overall discussion reflecting "the close ongoing cooperation between our three countries, as well as our common values and interests across the Asia-Pacific region."

One of those shared interests is a nuclear-free North Korea.

"We restated our commitment to the September 19, 2005 Joint Statement of the Six-Party Talks and its core goal: the verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a peaceful manner.

"We reaffirmed the UN Security Council’s unanimous condemnation of the DPRK’s recent ballistic missile launches as a violation of UN Security Council resolutions 1718, 1874, 2087, and 2094.

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"We also reiterated our commitment to the full and transparent implementation of all UN Security Council resolutions concerning the DPRK and urged the DPRK to refrain from further threatening actions."

The three countries also agreed to raise international awareness regarding human rights violations in North Korea and to hold North Korea accountable for those violations.

Monday's meeting follows President Barack Obama's U.S.-Japan-South Korea trilateral summit on March 25 in The Hague.

[State Department]