S. Korean foreign minister highlights importance of visa system improvements for economic, tech cooperation with US
Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya (From Right to left) pose for a photo during their trilateral talks held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday. (South Korea’s Foreign Ministry)
The top diplomats of South Korea, the United States and Japan “reaffirmed their resolute commitment to the complete denuclearization of North Korea” in a joint statement, after the North Korean leader’s explicit demand to drop such a goal to resurrect stalled dialogue with the US.
South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun sat down with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Japanese Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya to discuss Korean Peninsula affairs and regional issues as well as ways to enhance trilateral economic security cooperation on Monday, the Foreign Ministry in Seoul said Tuesday.
The meeting — the first trilateral foreign ministerial talks since Cho’s inauguration and the fourth such three-way session this year — was held in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
“The Secretary and Foreign Ministers reaffirmed their resolute commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) in accordance with the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions (UNSCRs), while continuing to make efforts to maintain peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and diplomacy,” the English-language joint statement read, referring to North Korea by its official name.
“They emphasized the need to address together the DPRK’s nuclear and missile programs and to maintain and strengthen the sanctions regime against the DPRK by responding firmly and in cooperation with other countries to violations and evasions of the relevant UNSCRs.”
The joint statement came after North Korea’s state media reported Monday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for the first time signaled openness to meeting US President Donald Trump — but only if Washington took denuclearization off the table.
In his policy speech on Sunday, Kim reiterated in unequivocal terms that North Korea would never relinquish its nuclear arsenal. Kim also threatened to use nuclear weapons, saying that if such a situation occurred, it would “annihilate” military forces in South Korea and US-allied countries in the region surrounding the Korean Peninsula.
In the joint statement, the US “reiterated its ironclad commitment to the defense of Japan and the ROK, backed by America’s unmatched military strength, including its nuclear capabilities,” referring to South Korea by its official name, the Republic of Korea.
Seoul, Washington and Tokyo also reaffirmed their resolve to “bolster defense and deterrence by advancing robust security cooperation,” including through the regular conduct of the trilateral multidomain exercise Freedom Edge.
The joint statement also covered growing military cooperation between North Korea and Russia, calling for an immediate halt to such activities and expressing “serious concern” over the matter, including Russian support for North Korea’s military capabilities, particularly its long-range missiles.
On China issues, the joint statement “strongly opposed unlawful maritime claims in the South China Sea” and “any attempts to change the status quo” in waters of the Indo-Pacific region, without naming China.
The three top diplomats “emphasized the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and expressed concern about increasingly frequent destabilizing actions around Taiwan” while expressing “support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in appropriate international organizations.”
The phrase expressing “concern about increasingly frequent destabilizing actions around Taiwan” was a new addition to the joint statement issued after such trilateral meetings of the foreign ministers.
In a separate statement, South Korea’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday said Cho called for the prevention of a recurrence of the mass detention of 317 Koreans in Georgia during the Sept. 4 raid by US immigration authorities while exchanging views on ways to deepen cooperation in economic security and advancing technology sectors.
“Minister Cho reaffirmed South Korea’s willingness to cooperate as the optimal partner for the United States’ advanced technology and manufacturing renaissance,” the Foreign Ministry in Seoul said.
“(Cho) emphasized that, to make this possible, it is essential to ensure smooth people-to-people exchanges, implement institutional improvements to prevent a recurrence of the Georgia incident, and introduce new visa systems, while calling for special measures from the US side.”
Seoul and Washington have been in consultations on how to address the shortage of US work visas, a mismatch with the massive inflow of South Korean investment into the US.
“Secretary Rubio stated that this is a bilateral rather than trilateral matter, but that, in consideration of the friendly alliance relationship, the US would work closely (with South Korea) to resolve the issue as quickly as possible,” according to the Foreign Ministry in Seoul.
dagyumji@heraldcorp.com
AloJapan.com