US and allies meet over N. Korea nuke test threat

SEOUL • Officials from the United States, South Korea and Japan have met in Seoul to prepare for "all contingencies" amid signs that North Korea is preparing to conduct a nuclear test for the first time since 2017.

US Special Representative Sung Kim met his South Korean and Japanese counterparts, Mr Kim Gunn and Mr Takehiro Funakoshi, yesterday after a US assessment that the North was preparing its Punggye-ri test site for what would be its seventh nuclear test.

This year, North Korea has tested several ballistic missiles, including one thought to be its largest intercontinental ballistic missile, in violation of United Nations resolutions.

"We want to make clear to the DPRK that its unlawful and destabilising activities have consequences and that the international community will not accept these actions as normal," the US envoy said, referring to North Korea by its formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

South Korea's newly appointed nuclear envoy, Mr Kim Gunn, said North Korea's "relentless pursuit of nuclear weapons will only end up strengthening our deterrence".

"The course that Pyongyang is currently embarking on has only one inevitable destination: reducing security for North Korea itself."

Last week, the US called for more UN sanctions on North Korea over its ballistic missile launches, but China and Russia vetoed the suggestion, publicly splitting the UN Security Council on North Korea for the first time since it started punishing the North in 2006, when it conducted its first nuclear test.

Japan's Mr Funakoshi stressed the need for coordination, vowing to "enhance regional deterrence, including trilateral security cooperation".

The officials said the door for dialogue was open and expressed concern over the Covid-19 situation in North Korea.

"We have made very clear directly to Pyongyang that we are open to diplomacy," Mr Sung Kim said later at a separate conference in Seoul, noting that Washington was willing to discuss items of interest to Pyongyang, such as sanctions relief. "So far, they have shown no interest."

China and Russia were clearly not interested in working with the US to manage North Korea's nuclear and missile arsenal, Mr Sung Kim said, when asked about their veto of new sanctions.

"We are not asking them for a favour; it's in their interest," he said.

North Korea on Thursday skipped the diplomatic niceties for a combative tone when it took the helm of the Conference on Disarmament (CD).

"My country is still at war with the United States," declared Pyongyang's ambassador Han Tae Song.

Around 50 countries voiced their outrage that unpredictable nuclear-armed North Korea is being tasked with chairing the world's most foremost multilateral disarmament forum for the next three weeks.

North Korea took over the rotating presidency of the Geneva-based CD, according to a decades-old practice among the body's 65 members following the alphabetical order of country names in English.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE