Ardern and key allies meet after North Korea fires intercontinental missile
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has taken part in a hastily-arranged meeting with United States Vice President Kamala Harris and the prime ministers of Japan, South Korea, Canada and Australia, after
North Korea fired a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into Japanese waters.
The meeting was arranged by the US on the sides of Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) in Bangkok within hours of a missile being sent into Japan’s waters. Ardern was initially scheduled to have a one-onone meeting with Harris.
‘‘We join with others in strongly condemning the actions of DPRK [North Korea],’’ Ardern said at the meeting.
‘‘I do want to particularly acknowledge the anxiety, the deep concern, the security threat, this escalation, this increasing use of missiles poses to Japan and South Korea.’’
Ardern said New Zealand would continue to uphold and monitor United Nations sanctions against North Korea.
Harris said she had called the meeting so ‘‘allies and partners can consult on next steps’’.
‘‘We strongly condemn these actions, and we again call North Korea to stop further unlawful, destabilising acts.
‘‘On behalf of the United States I confirm our ironclad commitment to our Indo-Pacific Alliance.’’
Ardern arrived in Bangkok, Thailand, late on Thursday for a meeting of leaders of the 21 economies that make up the Apec forum.
As Apec leaders assembled yesterday afternoon, Japanese officials confirmed North Korea had fired a suspected ICBM that landed 200km off Japan’s coast.
Such a missile could feasibly reach the United States. North Korea tested a shorter-range missile the day prior.
Harris, Ardern, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, South Korea’s Prime Minister Han Duck Soo, Canada’s Justin Trudeau and Australia’s Anthony Albanese all gave statements condemning the missile testing at the opening of the meeting.
Kishida said the missile had landed in Japan’s exclusive economic zone, and with the ‘‘unprecedented high-frequency’’ of missile tests it was possible further missiles would be launched.
‘‘I want to demonstrate that the strong will of all of us is to condemn these acts in the strongest possible terms,’’ he said, via a translator.
North Korea’s missile test was not the only disruption to the Apec meetings.
Reuters reported police fired rubber bullets at about 350 antigovernment protesters who clashed with security about 10km away from the Apec venue.
Yesterday afternoon Ardern also met one-on-one with Indonesia President Joko Widodo, before attending closed-door sessions at Apec, and with Trudeau on the side of the forum’s meetings.
At an Apec meeting, she announced New Zealand would con
‘‘The strong will of all of us is to condemn these acts in the strongest possible terms.’’ Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida
tribute $5.75 million to a climate fund administered by Apec.
She was due to have a bilateral meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping late yesterday evening.