Yoon, Biden, Kishida put up unified stance against North Korea, China

President Yoon Suk Yeol, right, speaks with U.S. President Joe Biden, left, and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida ahead of their three-way talks in Hiroshima, Japan, Sunday, on the sidelines of the G7 Summit. Joint Press Corps

US president invites leaders of S. Korea, Japan to Washington for talks

By Nam Hyun-woo

HIROSHIMA, Japan ― President Yoon Suk Yeol, U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida agreed Sunday to upgrade their trilateral cooperation to a new level during a meeting held on the sidelines of the Group of Seven (G7) Summit in Hiroshima, Japan.

The meeting, which took place briefly and did not generate practical deals and tangible outcomes, is widely seen as an attempt to show unity between the three allies to curb North Korea's nuclear threats and China's rise in the Indo-Pacific region.

In an apparent bid to continue their discussions on how to contain North Korea's missile and nuclear threats and challenges in the Indo-Pacific region, Biden extended an invitation to his South Korean and Japanese counterparts for another trilateral meeting in Washington, according to media reports.

The latest trilateral meeting came six months after the three leaders sat down together during the ASEAN Summit in Cambodia last November. This time, the trilateral meeting took place in the form of short conversations between the leaders that lasted for approximately five minutes, due to the time constraints of the multilateral event.

“During the summit, the leaders agreed to strengthen their strategic trilateral cooperation in order to bolster deterrence against North Korea and consolidate a free, open and rules-based international order,” Seoul's presidential spokesperson Lee Do-woon said in a statement after the meeting.

“The leaders also decided to deepen their practical cooperation in various fields, including trilateral security cooperation, namely real-time sharing of North Korea's missile warning data, stronger coordination for Indo-Pacific strategies, economic security and engagement with Pacific island countries.”

The White House said in a statement that Biden “commended Prime Minister Kishida and President Yoon on their courageous work to improve their bilateral ties, noting that our trilateral partnership and the Indo-Pacific are stronger because of their efforts.”

“The leaders discussed how to take their trilateral cooperation to new heights, including with new coordination in the face of the DPRK's illicit nuclear and missile threats, on economic security, and on their respective Indo-Pacific Strategies,” the White House said. DPRK is an acronym of North Korea's official name, Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

According to a White House statement issued after a summit held earlier in the day between Biden and Kishida, the leaders affirmed that they will “work closely together to address regional security challenges, including the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (North Korea's) nuclear and ballistic missile programs and coercive behavior by the People's Republic of China that runs counter to international law.”

During his speech at Sunday's G7 expanded session, Yoon did not specifically mention China, but stressed that global peace can be secured only when the international community follows international law and act according to the rules of law.

When it comes to deterrence against North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, the leaders agreed to seek ways to strengthen cooperation in sharing intelligence information in real time.

Yoon, Kishida and Biden agreed last November to share North Korean missile warning data in real time to improve each country's ability to detect and assess the threat posed by incoming missiles.