US, Japan, and South Korea sign trilateral cooperation memorandum in the Arctic region

New York, October 31 (KUNA) -- The United States, Japan, and South Korea signed a memorandum of cooperation to establish a trilateral partnership in the Arctic region bordering the Pacific Ocean, aiming to explore opportunities for maritime cooperation and enhance economic ties in the area. The U.S. State Department said in a statement on Friday evening that the signing took place during a meeting held by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio with his Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi and his South Korean counterpart Cho Hyun, on the sidelines of the Group of Twenty (G20) foreign ministers’ meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. The ministry explained that the three officials reviewed progress made in their trilateral partnership aimed at enhancing security and prosperity in a free and open Indo-Pacific region. It added that the ministers reaffirmed their firm commitment to the complete denuclearization of North Korea and the full implementation of United Nations Security Council resolutions, including the ban on supporting revenue-generating activities in favor of Pyongyang’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs. They commended the efforts of the multinational sanctions monitoring team in uncovering North Korea’s violations of Security Council resolutions and its attempts to circumvent them, emphasizing the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. The ministry reported that Rubio raised during the meeting China’s efforts to assert control over the South China Sea, its coercive practices in the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea, as well as Russia-China cooperation, which he considered to undermine peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region. The ministers stressed the importance of economic security, renewing their joint opposition to economic coercion and the use of supply chains as tools for political and economic pressure. They reviewed the implementation of the trilateral cooperation memorandum on the deployment of standard small modular nuclear reactors, signed in Ankara on July 7, with the aim of leveraging shared industrial capabilities to enhance global energy security. They also discussed areas of cooperation in economic security identified during trilateral consultations held in the South Korean capital, Seoul, on October 15. The ministers reaffirmed their commitment to the joint statement issued by the three countries on September 21, pledging to continue holding trilateral meetings at various levels to enhance coordination and joint cooperation. (End) E.S.T./M.M.J.