Joint Statement by Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, Japanese Minister for Foreign Affairs Hayashi Yoshimasa, and Republic of Korea Minister of Foreign Affairs Park Jin
Office of the Spokesperson
The United States, the Republic of Korea (ROK), and Japan strongly condemn recent Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) ballistic missile launches, commit to strengthen trilateral cooperation towards the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and full implementation of relevant United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, and underscore continued openness to meeting with the DPRK without preconditions.
The United States, the ROK, and Japan express deep concern about the May 25 DPRK launches of an intercontinental ballistic missile and shorter-range ballistic missiles. The DPRK has significantly increased the pace and scale of its ballistic missile launches since September 2021. Each of these launches violated multiple UNSC resolutions and posed a grave threat to the region and the international community. We urge the DPRK to abide by its obligations under UNSC resolutions and immediately cease actions that violate international law, escalate tensions, destabilize the region, and endanger the peace and security of all nations.
In response to the DPRK’s unlawful and destabilizing actions, our nations executed coordinated U.S.-ROK and U.S.-Japan exercises, demonstrating our shared, unequivocal commitment to regional security and stability. These launches highlight the importance of further strengthening the U.S.-ROK and U.S.-Japan alliances to ensure peace, security, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region. Our nations are also committed to advance trilateral security cooperation. The United States reaffirms its steadfast commitments to the defense of the Republic of Korea and Japan, including extended deterrence.
In spite of 13 Security Council members’ support, we deeply regret that the UNSC failed to adopt a resolution in response to the DPRK’s blatant and repeated violations of UNSC resolutions. We reaffirm our commitment to further strengthen our coordination with the international community to urge the DPRK to cease its unlawful activities and instead engage in dialogue.
We stress that a path to serious and sustained dialogue remains open and urge the DPRK to return to negotiations.
We express our deep concern at the grave hardship the people in the DPRK are experiencing, including due to the ongoing outbreak of COVID-19, and hope the DPRK will respond positively to international offers of assistance.
We also reaffirm the importance of achieving a swift resolution of the abductions issue.
