President Trump, South Korean President Moon Jae-in, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed Thursday to boost their pressure against North Korea following its launch this week of an intercontinental ballistics missile.
The three leaders met on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, and discussed the response to North Korea’s launch. Together, the trio decided, they would push for stronger sanctions against Pyongyang, the White House said.
Trump, Moon, and Abe condemned North Korea’s “unprecedented” launch, which the White House said was a “major escalation that directly violates multiple United Nation’s Security Council resolutions and that clearly demonstrates the growing threat the DPRK poses to the United States, the Republic of Korea, and Japan, as well as other countries around the world.”
During their meeting, the trio committed to continued cooperation to “apply maximum pressure” on North Korea, with the ultimate goal of pushing the rogue regime to not only stop its threatening actions but to also take necessary steps to return to “serious denuclearization dialogue.”
“The three leaders emphasized that they, together with the rest of the international community, stand ready to offer a brighter future for the DPRK if it chooses the right path,” the White House said. “The United States, the ROK, and Japan will never accept a nuclear armed DPRK.”
U.S. officials confirmed Tuesday that North Korea test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile, and the Pentagon said Wednesday the missile was one the U.S. hadn’t seen before.
After the launch, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, requested an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, which was held Wednesday.
The U.S. is pushing for the U.N. Security Council to impose new sanctions on North Korea, and Haley said she plans to propose stronger sanctions in the coming days.
Trump said Thursday he is considering “pretty severe” responses to North Korea, but didn’t elaborate on what his options are.
During their meeting, Trump, Moon and Abe agreed to push for early adoption of a new resolution from the U.N. Security Council that includes additional sanctions against North Korea to show there are “serious consequences for its destabilizing, provocative, and escalatory actions.”
The leaders also called on other countries to implement all U.N. Security Council resolutions and reduce their economic relations with North Korea and urged China — North Korea’s economic benefactor — to pressure North Korea to abandon its weapons program.
Trump had hoped Chinese President Xi Jinping would be able to pressure North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but the president took to his Twitter account Wednesday to criticize the trade relationship between China and North Korea.
When asked by a reporter Thursday if he lost faith in China, the president said, “Never give up.”
