US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Washington would work with its allies to deter “aggression” by North Korea, a day after Pyongyang fired another intercontinental ballistic missile, AFP reported, quoted by BTA.
The United States and its allies are committed to common defense “and we are doing our best to deter and defend against any aggression,” Blinken said at a meeting with the foreign ministers of Japan and South Korea in Jakarta. He added after the meeting that Pyongyang is the biggest threat to the common security of the three countries.
South Korean Foreign Minister Park Jin noted that the test of the new ballistic missile came just as regional powers were gathering for talks in Jakarta, where North Korea has sent a representative. “What North Korea is doing is completely contrary to the expectations of the international community,” Pak stressed.
“I hope that our trilateral dialogue today will strengthen our resolve to respond firmly and decisively – without ambiguity, to North Korea’s continued provocations and to send a message that its provocations will not go unpunished,” he added.
North Korea said leader Kim Jong-un personally supervised the launch of the missile, which traveled 1,001 km at a maximum altitude of 6,648 km before crashing into the Sea of Japan, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.
Pyongyang rejected offers from President Joe Biden’s administration for talks after Kim was able to hold historic summits with former President Donald Trump.
In Jakarta today, Blinken called on Southeast Asian nations to unite against what he called China’s “coercion” in the Asia-Pacific region. “We must uphold freedom of navigation in the South China and East China Seas and maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” the US secretary of state stressed.
With ASEAN countries, “we share the vision of a free, open, prosperous, secure, connected and sustainable Indo-Pacific region,” he added. “This means a region in which countries are free to choose their own paths and partners, in which problems are solved openly and not through coercion,” he stressed, referring to China, AFP notes. Tensions are rising between China and some ASEAN members, notably Vietnam and the Philippines, unhappy with Beijing’s claims to sovereignty over almost the entire South China Sea.
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2023-07-14 16:31:00
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