US, South Korea, Japan call for ‘complete denuclearisation’ of North Korea

The United States, South Korea and Japan have reiterated their longstanding call for North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons, a move Pyongyang has repeatedly ruled out.

The three countries addressed the issue on the sidelines of the Group of 20 (G20) meeting in the US city of Atlanta on Thursday, with their top diplomats reaffirming their “resolute commitment to the complete denuclearisation” of North Korea, according to a readout by the US Department of State.

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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi also pledged the “full implementation” of United Nations Security Council resolutions, including a ban on supporting revenue for North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

The statement comes despite repeated overtures to North Korea by US President Donald Trump, who held a series of historic summits with its leader, Kim Jong Un, during his first term in office and has continued to call Kim a “friend”.

Last year, Trump bucked a long-held US policy by conceding that North Korea was already “sort of a nuclear power”.

More recently, he has played down concerns about North Korea’s nuclear programme and expressed a desire to meet Kim again. Speculation is mounting that the two leaders could reconnect at next month’s APEC summit in China, which Trump is due to attend.

Analysts and South Korea’s spy agency say Kim may have conveyed Pyongyang’s position on potential talks with Trump to Beijing during a recent visit to the Chinese border city of Dandong.

South Korea’s dovish President Lee Jae Myung – who has repeatedly offered Pyongyang talks without preconditions – suggested in September that Washington seek a freeze, rather than the immediate elimination, of the North’s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.

Critics have said such an approach risks tacitly accepting North Korea as a nuclear-armed state while allowing Pyongyang to win sanctions relief without giving up its arsenal.

Despite long-running UN sanctions, North Korea, which is backed by Russia and China, has enshrined its status as a nuclear-armed state in law. Pyongyang’s government has declared its atomic arsenal to be permanent and irreversible.

Pyongyang denounced a joint statement on Saturday by a group of nations monitoring sanctions implementation against it, pledging that “the stereotyped sanctions racket of the US and the West can neither influence the position of the DPRK (North Korea) as a nuclear weapons state.”