NEW YORK – The United States, Japan and South Korea on Sunday roundly condemned North Korea’s recent nuclear test and called for tough new measures to further isolate the communist state.
Meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and the Japanese and South Korean foreign ministers said the North Korean test earlier this month would not go unanswered. The test was North Korea’s fifth and, along with recent ballistic missile launches, has been widely criticized as destabilizing to regional and international security.
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Kerry said the U.S. remained deeply committed to its mutual defence obligations with Japan and South Korea and would not shirk in “rolling back the provocative, reckless behaviour of” North Korea.
He said the U.S., Japan, South Korea and others would “make it clear to a reckless dictator that all he is doing through his actions is isolating his country, isolating his people and depriving his people of genuine economic opportunity.”
“The global community will not be intimidated and will not pull back from our obligations,” Kerry said. He called for North Korea and its leader Kim Jong-un to freeze Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs immediately and return to denuclearization talks.
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The South Korean foreign minister, Yun Byung-se, echoed Kerry’s comments, calling North Korea’s missile and nuclear tests a “ticking time bomb” and a threat to world safety. “What we see is a looming perfect storm that may not only pounce on Northeast Asia but sweep over the entire world,” he said.
The Obama administration has been nudging allies Japan and South Korea to set aside historical differences and co-operate more closely in diplomacy and security as the threat posed by North Korea intensifies.
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