US, South Korea, Japan renew denuclearisation pledge — SkimNews
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- Marco Rubio, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi reaffirmed on Oct 30 their commitment to North Korea's "complete denuclearisation", speaking on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.
- The same three ministers pledged "full implementation" of UN Security Council resolutions, including a ban on supporting revenue for North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
- North Korea has enshrined its nuclear-armed status in law and repeatedly declared its arsenal permanent and irreversible; on Oct 31 it denounced a sanctions-monitoring group's joint statement as a "stereotyped sanctions racket" from the US and West.
- Trump has made repeated overtures to Pyongyang for nuclear talks while scaling back joint military drills with South Korea, and last year said North Korea was already "sort of a nuclear power" and that he was "100%" open to a meeting — a suggestion that went unanswered.
- Kim Jong Un may have conveyed Pyongyang's position on potential talks to Beijing during a recent visit to the Chinese border city of Dandong, according to analysts and South Korea's spy agency, as speculation grows over a Trump-Kim meeting at next month's APEC summit in China.
- Lee Jae Myung proposed in September that Washington seek a freeze, rather than the immediate elimination, of North Korea's nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief; critics say that risks tacitly accepting a nuclear-armed North Korea while sanctions relief arrives without disarmament.
- China may also be moving toward tacit acceptance, analysts say, pointing to the omission of North Korean denuclearisation from statements after Kim Jong Un and Xi Jinping met in June.
Why it matters: The Oct 30 pledge puts Washington, Seoul and Tokyo behind full sanctions enforcement just as Trump says North Korea is already "sort of a nuclear power" and has scaled back joint drills. Lee Jae Myung's September proposal for a freeze in exchange for sanctions relief exposes the trade-off critics flag: relief for Pyongyang without disarmament.
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