Biden to debate North Korea nuclear menace with Japan, South Korea leaders By Reuters

By Nandita Bose and Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden will meet Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan and South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol throughout an upcoming journey to Asia to debate find out how to stem North Korea’s nuclear program, a White Home official mentioned on Wednesday.

The leaders will meet in Cambodia on Sunday, Nov. 13, when Biden visits Asia for conferences with ASEAN and the Group of 20 industrialized nations.

“The three leaders would work to “proceed enhancing trilateral cooperation all through the Indo-Pacific, notably in regard to our joint efforts to handle the continued menace posed by the Democratic Folks’s Republic of Korea’s illegal weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile packages,” Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the White Home Nationwide Safety Council, mentioned utilizing North Korea’s official title.

In October, North Korea test-fired a ballistic missile farther than ever earlier than, sending it hovering over Japan for the primary time in 5 years and prompting a warning for residents there to take cowl.

It prompted Biden to name Kishida and reiterate America’s “ironclad” dedication to the protection of Japan.

South Korean and U.S. warplanes additionally practiced bombing a goal within the Yellow Sea in response and fighter jets from america and Japan carried out joint drills over the Sea of Japan.

Final week, a U.S. official informed Reuters that China and Russia have leverage they will use to influence North Korea to not resume nuclear bomb testing.

The official mentioned whereas america had been saying since Might that North Korea was making ready to renew nuclear testing for the primary time since 2017, it was not clear when it’d conduct such a take a look at.

In Might, when Biden final visited Asia, administration officers mentioned they had been within the closing levels of a evaluate of its coverage in direction of North Korea and was eager to encourage higher trilateral cooperation with Seoul and Tokyo on that concern.

North Korea has lengthy been banned from conducting nuclear checks and ballistic missile launches by the U.N. Safety Council, which strengthened sanctions on Pyongyang through the years to try to minimize off funding for these packages.