Leaders of the United States, Japan and South Korea met in Cambodia on Sunday, and their cooperation on dealing with North Korea's nuclear and missile threats is likely to be high on the agenda. Ahead of the trilateral talks in Phnom Penh, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and US President Joe Biden held bilateral talks, according to the Japanese government.
Kishida, Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will almost certainly emphasize the need to step up deterrence against North Korea, a country that has tested ballistic missiles. an unprecedented pace since earlier this year, Japanese officials said. and the United States to counter the rise of China.
They are expected to issue a joint statement, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters earlier this week. The meeting takes place on the sidelines of summits involving the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and its partners. Kishida will also raise the issue of North Korea's abductions of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s, the officials said. North Korea's string of missile launches defies US.
Security Council resolutions have fueled fears it could soon conduct its seventh nuclear test, and the first since 2017. The latest rockets included one in early October that flew over the Japanese archipelago for the first time in five years. as an ICBM earlier this month. Kishida, Biden and Yoon last met at the end of June on the sidelines of a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Madrid.
Since Yoon succeeded the leftist Moon Jae In in May, South Korea has taken a tougher stance on North Korea and expressed a desire to strengthen defense cooperation with the United States and Japan. The three countries held an anti-submarine drill and a joint ballistic missile detection exercise in late September for the first time in five years. Early October.
After leaving Cambodia, leaders will attend a two-day summit of the Group of 20 major economies on the Indonesian island of Bali starting Tuesday.