The foreign ministers of South Korea, the United States, and Japan met in Atlanta to reaffirm their commitment to the complete denuclearization of North Korea and to coordinate the implementation of UN Security Council sanctions against the country.
On October 30, U.S. Secretary of State Mark Rubio, South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin, and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi held a trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting to review progress in cooperation and discuss future tasks.
The three ministers reiterated their shared goal of North Korea's complete denuclearization, emphasizing the need for strict adherence to Security Council resolutions that prohibit funding for North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs. They also positively assessed the activities of the Multinational Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) aimed at tracking violations and evasion of sanctions by North Korea.
During the meeting, they signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) to explore maritime cooperation and economic partnerships in the Arctic region.
Immediately after the signing, Rubio posted on his social media account, stating, "Protecting the Arctic Pacific is a priority we share with Japan and South Korea."
The ministers also addressed key issues related to the Indo-Pacific region and economic security. They agreed on the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. Rubio highlighted China's attempts to dominate the South China Sea and its coercive actions in the East China Sea and Yellow Sea, pointing out the threats posed by cooperation between China and Russia to regional peace and stability.
In the realm of economic security, they reaffirmed their joint opposition to the weaponization of supply chains and economic coercion. The ministers reviewed the implementation of the MOC on Small Modular Reactor (SMR) cooperation signed on July 7 in Ankara, Turkey, and discussed cooperation initiatives derived from the trilateral economic security consultations held in Seoul on October 15.
This marks the first gathering of the three foreign ministers since their meeting on September 21 during the UN General Assembly in New York, and it is the fourth such meeting this year. The three countries agreed to continue trilateral consultations at all levels moving forward.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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