US Discusses North Korea's Denuclearization With Japan, South Korea - Reports

Foreign ministers of Japan, South Korea and the United States had trilateral talks on Wednesday on the sidelines of the G7 ministerial summit to discuss security in the Korean Peninsula and the Indo-Pacific, Japanese news agency Kyodo reported, citing diplomatic sources

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 05th May, 2021) Foreign ministers of Japan, South Korea and the United States had trilateral talks on Wednesday on the sidelines of the G7 ministerial summit to discuss security in the Korean Peninsula and the Indo-Pacific, Japanese news agency Kyodo reported, citing diplomatic sources.

The three ministers discussed, in particular, the denuclearization of North Korea and China's military buildup and maritime claims, according to the report.

Sources said that the trilateral meeting was initiated by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, whose country hopes that its two Asian allies can overcome their existing disagreements in order to tackle together threats emanating from Pyongyang and Beijing.

On Monday, Blinken expressed hope during a G7 press conference that North Korea would "take the opportunity to engage diplomatically" and seek complete denuclearization. The Washington-Pyongyang nuclear talks were discontinued in February 2019.

A variety of issues is souring Japan-South Korea relations, above all a legal clash over wartime South Korean "comfort women" in Japanese brothels and Japan's dumping of treated water from the defunct Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the sea.