U.S. deputy secretary of state to visit Tokyo for trilateral talks with S. Korea, Japan

Washington (US), October 21: U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will visit Tokyo next week for trilateral talks with her South Korean and Japanese counterparts on various issues, including North Korea's recent missile provocations, a senior U.S. administration official said Thursday.
The deputy secretary will arrive in Tokyo on Monday for a three-day trip that will include bilateral meetings with South Korea's First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong and Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Takeo Mori.
"We will discuss a range of issues, including the DPRK's numerous ballistic missile launches this year," the official said of her trip in a telephonic press briefing, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"We will examine how our countries can expand our ongoing trilateral cooperation not only in the face of ongoing security challenges, but also in our work with our Pacific Island partners, with ASEAN, and in tackling challenges, such as climate change, supply chain bottlenecks, global health and gender empowerment," the official added, while speaking on condition of anonymity.
The upcoming trilateral meeting of vice foreign ministers, the fourth of its kind since U.S. President Joe Biden took office early last year, follows a recent series of North Korean missile tests.
North Korea staged eight rounds of missile launches in less than three weeks from late last month, also firing a ballistic missile over Japan for the first time since 2017.
The administration official noted the country has launched 44 ballistic missiles this year, which, according to other officials, marks the largest number of ballistic missiles the North has fired in a single year.
The official reiterated the U.S. condemns North Korea's ballistic missile launches, along with other provocative actions, but said the U.S. remains firmly committed to engaging with the reclusive country.
"All three of our countries -- the Republic of Korea and Japan, the United States -- are focused on the need to resolve this situation with the DPRK through diplomacy and dialogue. Recent developments, the 44 ballistic missile launches, only underscore the urgent need for dialogue and diplomacy," the official said.
"Our goal remains the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. We remain prepared to engage in serious and sustained diplomacy to make tangible progress toward that end. We remain prepared to meet with the DPRK without any preconditions whatsoever," he added.
The official dismissed the need to deploy U.S. tactical nuclear weapons to South Korea when asked, reiterating that Seoul is under the protection of U.S. extended deterrence with the "full range of U.S. defense capabilities, including nuclear, conventional and missile defense capabilities."
Source: Yonhap