US, Japan, South Korea hold trilateral talks on North Korea

South Korea’s foreign ministry said Saturday that officials from South Korea, the United States and Japan met in Tokyo on Friday for a trilateral meeting on North Korean affairs.

The meeting involved Kim Sang-il, head of the ministry’s North Korean Nuclear Affairs Policy Division; David Wilezol, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Northeast Asia; and Kengo Otsuka, deputy director-general for Asian and Oceanian affairs at the Japanese foreign ministry, the ministry said.

The officials shared assessments of recent developments on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia, and reaffirmed their commitment to the denuclearization of North Korea and to the implementation of U.N. sanctions and autonomous sanctions imposed by individual nations, Seoul’s foreign ministry said.

“We explained our effort in easing tension and building trust in inter-Korean relations, and also exchanged views on trilateral cooperation in ensuring peace and security on the Korean Peninsula,” the ministry added.

In a press release issued Friday, the Japanese foreign ministry said the three officials “expressed their serious concerns over North Korea’s nuclear and missile development.” They also agreed to work closely on countering the advancement of Russia-North Korea military cooperation and North Korea’s malicious cyber activities, Tokyo’s ministry said.

The talks came as Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Pyongyang earlier this month, marking his first trip to North Korea since 2019 and underscoring the deepening alignment between Beijing and Pyongyang. MSI previously reported that Xi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met to strengthen their alliance and that Kim backed China’s vision of a “multipolar world.” Read the prior coverage.

Also in Tokyo on Friday, the three countries held their trilateral secretariat managing board meeting. Wilezol and Otsuka were joined by Yi Won-woo, director-general for North American affairs at the South Korean foreign ministry. These officials reviewed progress on three-way cooperation on issues including security, the economy and technology, and discussed specific ways to produce concrete outcomes, the ministry said.