U.S. President Joe Biden’s defense and foreign policy leaders have arrived in South Korea for the second part of a regional tour aimed at encouraging Washington’s Asian alliances to better address China’s growing challenges. and North Korea.
While in Seoul, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with South Korean peers for separate talks on Wednesday and will hold a “two more” meeting on Thursday. the first such communication between the two countries in five years.
Blinken and Lloyd’s Asian tour is the first overseas trip with senior members of Biden’s administration. On Tuesday, the pair were in the Japanese capital, Tokyo, where they joined Japanese officials to criticize China’s “coercion and aggression” and reaffirm their commitment to the embargo. North Korea of their nuclear bombs.
The latter topic will be the focus of Blinken and Austin talks in South Korea.
U.S.-led diplomacy on the subject has been in limbo since the collapse of a conference in February 2019 between former President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on controversies over led sanctions in the US. Since then Kim has threatened to expand North Korea ‘s nuclear arsenal in protest of what he called U.S. hostility.
Following the meeting between Blinken and South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yon in Seoul, the State Department issued a statement saying that the two officials had agreed to work together to resolve nuclear issues and North Korean missiles, calling them “priority”.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry also said it had agreed to continue talks to hold a summit between Presidents Moon Jae-in and Joe Biden as soon as possible, and to coordinate on North Korea as Washington policy progresses.
Meanwhile, Austin, speaking to reporters before meeting with his South Korean colleague Suh Wook, named the US-South Korea alliance as a “linchpin” for peace, security and prosperity. in Northeast Asia, and for the free and open Indo-Pacific region and beyond. .
“The US-South Korea alliance is even more important because of the unprecedented threats from China and North Korea,” he said.
For his part, Suh said it was important for the alliances to maintain a strong deterrent and a joint defensive position against North Korea, and promised to strengthen the alliance, according to Yonhap news agency.
But he made no mention of China, according to Rob McBride at Al Jazeera in Seoul.
“South Korea’s relationship with China is far more advanced than Japan’s. South Korea is far more dependent on China for trade and wants to avoid, where possible, face-to-face conflict with Beijing, ”said McBride.
He noted that when South Korea allowed the U.S. to install a missile defense shield against North Korea on its soil in 2017, it suffered economic retaliation from China, which see system radar as a security threat.
‘Don’t stop causing stink’
On Tuesday, Kim’s North Korean leader Kim Yo Jong’s sister blamed the United States over its regular military drills with South Korea, which Pyongyang sees as a prelude to an attack.
“We will take this opportunity to warn the new U.S. administration,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement. “If he wants to sleep in peace [the] four years to come, it was better to stop the first step.
Some experts say Kim Yo Jong ‘s statement is a weight loss tactic and that Pyongyang could try to boost animations with weapon tests to increase its leverage in future talks with Washington.
Asked about Kim Yo Jong ‘s statement at a press conference in Tokyo earlier Wednesday, Blinken said that he was familiar with the views and was more interested in hearing from allies and partners.
Blinken said Washington reached out to North Korea through several channels starting in mid-February, but received no response. He said the Biden administration was looking forward to concluding its policy review of North Korea in the coming weeks and was looking at both “additional pressure measures” and “pathways”. diplomatic ”.
In Seoul later in the day, Blinken took a hit on North Korea ‘s human rights agenda, saying Pyongyang “continues to commit systemic and widespread abuse against its own people”.
“We need to stand up for those who want fundamental rights and freedom against those who oppose them,” he said.