Japan, US, South Korea officials condemn North Korea for missile test

Tokyo. Senior officials from Japan, the United States and South Korea have condemned North Korea for its recent test of an ICBM-class ballistic missile and vowed to enhance trilateral cooperation to strengthen sanctions against it. Officials from all three countries also stressed the need for dialogue with North Korea. They met on Thursday in the central Japanese city of Karuizawa after North Korea’s ICBM test last week. US Special Representative for North Korea Sung Kim said his country was “working hard” to gather information on an American soldier who crossed the border into North Korea earlier this month.

Kim said that the US is ensuring his safety and repatriation. Travis King, 23, served almost two months in a South Korean prison for attacking an unidentified man and damaging a police vehicle in Seoul in October last year. King was released on July 10 and was to return home to Fort Bliss, Texas, on Monday, where he could face additional military action and dismissal from the service. Instead of going to Texas, he accompanied a group of tourists on Tuesday morning to visit the demilitarized zone dividing South and North Korea and cross the North Korean border.

Japan’s Special Representative Takihiro Funakoshi said Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida wanted to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un “without any preconditions” to resolve the decades-old issue of abductions of Japanese citizens by North Korea. Kim Gun, South Korea’s special representative for peace and security on the Korean Peninsula, said the three officials discussed ways to strengthen close communication to bring North Korea back on the path of denuclearization and promote China’s positive role, and expressed a common intention to hold dialogue with North Korea.

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