WASHINGTON– U.S. special representative for North Korea Sung Kim will hold a trilateral meeting with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts this week to discuss ways to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, the state department said Sunday.
Kim will travel to Honolulu, Hawaii, from Feb. 10 through 15 for a meeting with South Korea’s Noh Kyu-duk and Japan’s Funakoshi Takehiro, according to the department.
“Special Representative Kim will host a trilateral meeting with Japanese Director-General for Asian and Oceanian Affairs Funakoshi Takehiro and Republic of Korea (ROK) Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Peace and Security Affairs Noh Kyu-duk to discuss a broad range of issues, including the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the importance of trilateral cooperation, and the immediate resolution of the abductions issue,” it said in a press release.
The three nuclear envoys will be accompanying their foreign ministers, who are also set to hold three-way foreign ministerial talks on Saturday.
“Special Representative Kim, Special Representative Noh, and Director-General Funakoshi will also attend the February 12 Trilateral Ministerial meeting in which the U.S. will reiterate its commitment to regional security and lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula,” said the press release.
The meetings follow a series of North Korean missile launches, which the U.S. has condemned as serious violations of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions.
The nuclear envoys also held a three-way telephone conversation last week, immediately after North Korea fired an intermediate-range ballistic missile, the longest range missile launched by Pyongyang since its last intercontinental ballistic missile test in late 2017.
The North has so far fired nine ballistic missile in seven rounds of missile tests this year, the U.S. noted earlier.
The country is prohibited under various U.N. Security Council resolutions from developing or testing any type of ballistic missiles.
Source: Yonhap News Agency