Allies keep pressure on Kim ahead of talks
S. Korea, U.S., Japan united in interim policy
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who are both planning to meet North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un this spring, pledged Friday to maintain “maximum pressure” on his authoritarian regime and seek action on giving up his nukes, the White House said.
In a phone call with Moon, Trump reiterated his intention to meet Kim by the end of May. According to a White House statement, the allied leaders “agreed that concrete actions, not words, will be the key to achieving permanent denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.” They also agreed that a “brighter future is available for North Korea if it chooses the right path,” the White House stated.
Moon is due to meet Kim in April, a prelude to what would be the first U.s.-north Korean summit during seven decades of hostility since the 1950-53 Korean War.
North Korea has yet to publicly confirm the summit plans, and the venue for the meeting remains up in the air, although a rare visit by the North’s top diplomat to Sweden on Friday fueled speculation the Scandinavian nation might play host.
On Friday, the U.S. official left in charge of the State Department after Rex Tillerson’s departure faced a delicate diplomatic task: to keep America’s key Asian allies on the same page over the outreach to Kim.
Deputy Secretary John Sullivan met separately with Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha of South Korea and Foreign Minister Taro Kono of Japan.
Alongside Kono on Friday, Sullivan told reporters that the U.S. and Japan would discuss their “many common interests” and build on the allies’ “unbreakable bonds.”
Kono, who also met with Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, called for resolution not just of the nuclear and missile issues but also of the cases of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s.