TV news about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and U.S. President Joe Biden broadcast from the Seoul Subway Suseki Station in South Korea. (Mar. 26, 2021)
The national security advisers of the United States, South Korea and Japan will discuss “all aspects of North Korea policy” when they meet Friday (April 2), a senior U.S. administration official said in Washington.
This is Joe Biden (Joe Biden) as U.S. President since the three countries held the first such tripartite meeting.
Analysts said that Washington, Seoul and Tokyo currently have major differences in policy issues in response to Pyongyang.
North Korea’s missile provocations, Pyongyang’s response to the Communist Party’s viral outbreak and recent diplomatic discussions between the Communist Party and North Korea are on the agenda of the trilateral talks, according to the U.S. official Thursday. The official told reporters, “Our intent is to be able to have an in-depth deliberation that will inform our process going forward.”
The talks took place at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. Prior to the talks, North Korea test-fired a cruise missile and two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea.
The senior administration official, who asked not to be named, said, “We believe that anything we do on issues related to North Korea requires cooperation and harmony with Japan and South Korea.”
Sue Mi Terry, senior fellow and director of Korean Peninsula affairs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, predicted, “It’s unlikely there will be any trilateral breakthroughs in the next year before the presidential elections in Annapolis or South Korea.” South Korea will hold a presidential election next year.
Before the three countries met at the U.S. Naval Academy, Secretary of State Antony Blinken (Antony Blinken) and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin (Lloyd Austin) visited Japan and South Korea. The visits are meant to show that Biden is trying to grow U.S. alliances in Asia after four stormy years under the previous administration.
Former President Donald Trump (Donald Trump) criticized Tokyo and Seoul for “hitchhiking” under the U.S. nuclear umbrella and not allocating enough money for their own defense. Japan and South Korea have U.S. military bases in their territories, and Trump has asked both countries to bear more of the cost of the U.S. military presence.
The senior administration official said Friday’s talks will also touch on other regional issues of mutual concern, including the “sad situation in Myanmar” and Beijing’s increasingly assertive behavior in the South China Sea.
Duyeon Kim, a visiting senior fellow with the Indo-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, told the Voice of America, “It’s very critical for them to think alike and coordinate closely on Communist China and North Korea.”
South Korean President Moon Jae-in is seen as reluctant to join efforts to increase pressure on the Chinese Communist Party, and even less so if that includes openly cooperating with Japan.
“Getting Seoul involved in the China issue and cooperating trilaterally will, at best, require a lot of creativity and playfulness,” Kim Do-yeon predicted. “Anti-Japanese sentiment is particularly entrenched in Moon’s voter base, to the point where they are unable to compartmentalize and cooperate on common challenges like North Korea, which is very different from the previous (South Korean) conservative administration.”
Yuki Tatsumi, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center, echoed this sentiment. She mentioned that “while there are some major issues on Pyongyang’s side,” Seoul continues to pressure Tokyo on the history issue, which has “caused a lot of resentment” on Washington’s side. Japan has colonized the Korean Peninsula.
The fundamental differences between Japan and South Korea on the history issue “cannot be readily changed,” Terry also said. “But after the bottom of Japan-South Korea relations in recent years, there should at least be some improvement in the atmosphere, because the Biden administration has made it a priority to get Seoul and Tokyo on the same page, or at least not on the same page. There would at least be an appearance of cooperation, even if it lacks substance. But the symbols are also important.”
Kim Do-yeon said South Korea has been slowly warming up to Japan as it hopes to have a quadrilateral meeting with North Korea at this year’s Tokyo Olympics, which it hopes will lead to a resumption of a series of summits.
She told the Voice of America, “It’s pretty clear that Washington and Seoul disagree on the timing and terms of a U.S.-North Korea summit.”
According to Yuki Tatsumi, Japan also bears some responsibility for the issue of Japan-South Korea relations, which is hindering trilateral progress because “they completely distrust the current (South Korean) government and have not the slightest interest in engaging with them in any way.”
Analysts expect Pyongyang to make moves to draw attention to itself in response to the trilateral meeting between the U.S., Japan and South Korea.
“It’s possible that North Korea will engage in further provocative actions to start slowly testing the Biden administration and will keep ratcheting up the pressure if they don’t get what they want,” Terry told the Voice of America. “In other words, they’ll probably go back to the same tried and true tactics they’ve used in dealing with any new administration.”
Recent Comments