US, South Korea and Japan renew pledge on North Korea’s complete denuclearisation on sidelines of G20 in Atlanta
Photo: Collected
The United States, South Korea and Japan have once again reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearisation of North Korea.
The three countries reiterated the pledge on Saturday, even as Pyongyang keeps rejecting proposals to give up its nuclear weapons ahead of possible talks with Washington.
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit will be held in China next month. Speculation is growing that US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un may meet on its sidelines.
Trump has repeatedly offered Pyongyang talks on its nuclear programme.
News agency AFP reported this from Seoul.
The US State Department said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi met on Friday on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Atlanta, in the US state of Georgia. There, they renewed their firm commitment to the ‘complete denuclearisation’ of North Korea.
The three ministers also pledged the ‘full implementation’ of UN Security Council resolutions. These resolutions include cutting off the channels that fund North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.
Although UN sanctions have long been in place, North Korea, backed by Russia and China, has established itself by law as a nuclear-armed state. Its ruling establishment has declared several times that its nuclear arsenal is permanent and that there is no question of giving it up.
Trump keen on a meeting
Trump has repeatedly offered talks with North Korea on its nuclear programme. He has also scaled back joint military exercises with ally South Korea.
Last year, departing from long-standing US policy, Trump accepted that North Korea is already ‘sort of a nuclear power’. Expressing interest in talks with Pyongyang at the time, he said he was ‘100 per cent’ ready to sit down with Kim. North Korea, however, did not respond to the offer.
Analysts and South Korea’s intelligence agency believe that during a recent visit to the Chinese border city of Dandong, Kim conveyed Pyongyang’s position on a possible meeting with Trump to Beijing.
South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who takes a relatively softer stance, proposed in September that instead of an immediate complete halt to North Korea’s nuclear programme, Washington should discuss easing sanctions in exchange for a freeze for now. Earlier, he had also proposed talks with Pyongyang without any preconditions.
Critics say such a move would risk effectively accepting North Korea as a nuclear-armed state. Pyongyang would gain sanctions relief while keeping its nuclear arsenal intact.
Analysts believe China, too, is moving towards effectively accepting North Korea as a nuclear-armed state.
As evidence, they point to the statement issued after the meeting between Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping last June, which left out any mention of North Korea’s denuclearisation.
Meanwhile, Pyongyang has condemned a joint statement issued on Saturday by several countries that monitor the implementation of sanctions on North Korea.
It warned, ‘The stereotyped sanctions moves of the US and Western countries can have no impact on the DPRK’s (North Korea’s) position as a nuclear weapons state.’
Background
The Korea Times, citing Yonhap, reported on 13 October 2026 that this year’s APEC summit will be held in Shenzhen, China, on 18–19 November; asked then whether he would meet Kim, Trump said, ‘Could be.’
According to the same report, the last of Trump and Kim’s three face-to-face meetings took place at Panmunjom in June 2019; the earlier two were held in Singapore (2018) and Hanoi (2019).
At a glance
According to an Al Jazeera report of 27 September 2023, North Korea’s parliament, the Supreme People’s Assembly, unanimously amended the constitution to enshrine the nuclear programme in the state’s basic law.
Sources
Original report: BSS
Background sources: The Korea Times (Yonhap), 13 October 2026; Al Jazeera, 27 September 2023
