U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Japanese and South Korean counterparts met on Saturday in Hawaii to discuss the threat posed by North Korea with nuclear weapons after Pyongyang began the year with a series of missile tests.
Blinken met in Honolulu with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong. Security officials from three countries last week said a recent North Korean missile test disrupted regional security.
Some experts say North Korea is using nuclear weapons to put pressure on President Joe Biden’s administration to resume long-term nuclear talks as the epidemic puts another strain on the economy already plagued by decades of mismanagement and crippling US-led sanctions.
Biden officials have offered North Korea open talks but have shown no intention of easing sanctions without a significant reduction in the nuclear program.
The test also plays a technological role, allowing North Korea to sharpen its weapons. One of the newly tested Hwasong-12 intermediate-range ballistic missile is able to reach US territory in Guam. It was the longest-range weapon tested in the North since 2017.
North Korea seems to be halting its trials during the Winter Olympics in China, its most important partner and economic lifestyle. But analysts believe North Korea will significantly increase its arms test after the Olympics.
Recent polls have puzzled Pyongyang’s neighbors in South Korea and Japan. South Korean President Moon Jae-in, who helped set up a historic dialogue between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and former President Donald Trump in 2018 and 2019, said last month the sanctions violated UN Security Council resolutions and called on the North to end hostilities. and pressure.
The Security Council first imposed sanctions on North Korea after its first nuclear test in 2006. It has made it difficult to respond to other nuclear tests and the country’s increasingly sophisticated nuclear and missile programs.
China and Russia, speaking on the economic crisis in the North, have called for the lifting of sanctions similar to those banning the export of marine living resources and the banning of its citizens working overseas and sending their money home.
Blinken arrived in Hawaii from Fiji, where he met with Acting Prime Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum and other Pacific leaders to discuss regional issues, particularly the dangers posed by climate change. It was the first US secretary of state visit to Fiji since 1985.
He began his Pacific trip to Australia, where he met his colleagues from Australia, India and Japan. Four nations form the Quad, an Indo-Pacific democratic bloc created to counter the influence of the Chinese region.