The United States and its allies South Korea and Japan met Wednesday to plot their next steps on North Korea, amid a flurry of diplomacy as tensions gradually ease with the communist state.
Glyn Davies, the US special representative on North Korea policy, met his counterparts from Japan and South Korea on what the State Department called “our common interest in ensuring peace and stability on the Korean peninsula.”
The meeting came on the same day that veteran North Korean negotiator Kim Kye-Gwan held talks in main ally China, which President Barack Obama recently praised for taking a harder line on Pyongyang’s nuclear program.
North Korea carried out its third atomic bomb test in February and responded to condemnation by making unusually fiery threats, including threatening that it was ready to strike the United States with nuclear weapons.
But North Korea in recent weeks agreed to talks with Seoul, which ultimately did not take place, and offered direct dialogue with the United States.
Washington, which saw the offer as a way to drive a wedge between itself and South Korea, has vowed to coordinate policy with regional players and called on North Korea to show it is serious about denuclearization.
Davies in a speech last week said that North Korea’s actions this year set the bar higher for the resumption of dialogue, and called on the communist state to address its nuclear issue as well as other concerns, including human rights.
The South Korean representative on North Korea policy, Cho Tae-Yong, will head to Beijing after leaving Washington.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was also visiting China, where he spoke Wednesday with President Xi Jinping about the Korean peninsula and other issues.
US, allies plot next steps on North Korea
