Seoul, South Korea — The national security advisers of the United States, South Korea and Japan called on Saturday for stronger international pressure to suppress North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and missiles, its cybertheft activities and alleged arms transfers to Russia.
The meeting in Seoul came at a time when tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest in years, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un accelerating the expansion of his nuclear weapons and missile programs and flaunting an escalating nuclear doctrine that allows preventive use of nuclear weapons.
The United States and its Asian allies have responded by increasing the visibility of their trilateral partnership in the region and strengthening their combined military exercises, which Kim condemns as invasion rehearsals.
Washington, Seoul and Tokyo have also expressed concerns about a possible arms coordination between North Korea and Russia. They are concerned that Kim is providing much-needed ammunition to help Russian President Vladimir Putin wage war in Ukraine in exchange for Russian technological help to upgrade his nuclear-armed military.
After the meeting, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Washington is working with Seoul and Tokyo to strengthen defense cooperation and improve its response to North Korean missile tests and space launch activities, including a real-time information sharing arrangement on North Korea rockets. launches that the countries plan to begin at an unspecified date in December.
He also said the countries agreed to new initiatives to respond more effectively to North Korea's efforts to circumvent US-led international sanctions aimed at stifling funds for its nuclear weapons and missile programs.
“This will be a new effort regarding cryptocurrency and money laundering and how we disrupt North Korea's ability to generate revenue from hacking and stealing cryptocurrency and then laundering it through exchanges,” he said.
Sullivan declined to share detailed U.S. assessments of the types and quantities of North Korean weapons being shipped to Russia and did not comment on the details of his conversations with South Korean and Japanese officials on the issue, but emphasized that “there is no daylight under is us. in terms of the types of arms transfers we see. And those persist and are a major concern for us.”
South Korean intelligence and military officials have said North Korea may have sent more than a million artillery shells to Russia starting in August, weeks before Kim traveled to Russia's Far East for a rare summit with Putin that raised international concerns about a possible arms deal. Both Moscow and Pyongyang have denied the US and South Korean claims.
At a joint news conference after Saturday's trilateral meeting, Cho Tae-yong, director of South Korea's national security bureau, said the three security advisers reaffirmed North Korea's obligations under multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions calling for to denuclearize the country and ban arms trade with other countries. , and agreed to strengthen coordination to ensure this is implemented.
Takeo Akiba, secretary general of Japan's National Security Secretariat, said the “unprecedented frequency and patterns” of North Korean ballistic missile launches necessitate a deeper and more effective partnership between Washington, Seoul and Tokyo.
South Korea, the US, Japan and Australia have also announced their own sanctions against North Korea over the launch of the spy satellite last month. North Korea claims it has the right to launch spy satellites to monitor U.S. and South Korean military activities and increase the threat from its nuclear missiles.
Speaking to reporters, Sullivan said allies are preparing for the possibility that North Korea will increase the stakes in its weapons demonstrations and threats in 2024, possibly including the country's seventh nuclear test.
Direct military action is also a concern after the North recently announced it will abandon a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement on easing border tensions after the South partially abandoned the agreement, which had established border buffers and no-fly zones had suspended. Some experts say this has increased the risk of shootings or clashes in the border areas.
“Look, when a country announces that it plans to walk away from a series of measures designed to help reduce risks and increase stability, our concern about potential incidents and provocations should increase,” Sullivan said, though he said the full implications. of the North's announcement is not immediately clear.
Sullivan held separate bilateral talks with Cho and Akiba on Friday and also met with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
The US, South Korean and Japanese national security advisers last held a trilateral meeting in Tokyo in June.
South Korean intelligence officials have said the Russians likely provided technological support for North Korea's successful satellite launch in November, which followed two failed launches.
North Korea has said its spy satellite is broadcasting images with space views of key locations in the US and South Korea, including the White House and the Pentagon. But it hasn't released any of those satellite photos. Many outside experts question whether the North's satellite is advanced enough to transmit high-resolution, militarily useful images.
Kim has pledged to launch more satellites and says his military must acquire space reconnaissance capabilities.
South Korean officials have also said that North Korean rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons could have been used by Hamas in the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and that the North may consider selling weapons to militant groups in the Middle East.
Sullivan said the United States has seen no specific evidence of that but remains vigilant about the possibility.
“I think given North Korea's history of proliferation activities, including reprehensible actors in other contexts in history, this is a legitimate concern,” he said.
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Associated Press writers Hyung-jin Kim and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to the report.