The US State Department has said North Korea’s approach will have to be done in concert with close allies.
Denuclearization will remain central to US policy toward North Korea and any approach to Pyongyang will have to be “en bloc” with close allies, including Japan and South Korea, the spokesperson said on Thursday. of State Department Ned Price.
Price made the comments during a regular press briefing in Washington ahead of a scheduled meeting between President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan and his counterparts in Japan and South Korea.
Price said the meeting would be an opportunity to share where the Biden administration is in its review of US policy towards North Korea and for representatives from Japan and South Korea to share their viewpoints.
“I wouldn’t want to prejudge the conclusion of an ongoing review, but we have said that denuclearization will remain at the center of US policy toward North Korea,” Price said.
“We also know that any North Korean approach, to be effective, will be one that we must execute in concert with our close allies, including in this case our treaty allies, Japan and South Korea,” did he declare. .
Sullivan is scheduled to meet with his Japanese counterpart Shigeru Kitamura and his South Korean counterpart Suh Hoon at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis on April 2.
The Biden administration simultaneously signaled a hard line on human rights, denuclearization and sanctions in its North Korean policy, while making diplomatic overtures which administration officials said were rejected by Pyongyang.
Biden said on Thursday that the United States remains open to diplomacy with North Korea despite its ballistic missile testing last week, but warned there would be answers if North Korea makes matters worse.
Biden does not intend meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the White House said on Monday.
Former President Donald Trump has met with Kim three times but has failed to persuade him to give up his nuclear weapons.
Pyongyang said the Biden administration took a bad first step and revealed “deep hostility” in criticizing what it called a self-defense missile test.
