SEOUL– President Yoon Suk-yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida spoke by phone Thursday and strongly condemned North Korea’s recent missile launches while agreeing on the need to warn the regime that its provocations will have consequences, the presidential office said.
The 25-minute phone call came two days after North Korea launched an intermediate-range ballistic missile over Japan in its most daring provocation in years, sending the Japanese people scrambling to evacuate and suspending train operations in some areas.
On Thursday morning, the North fired two more short-range missiles into the East Sea.
“The two leaders strongly condemned North Korea’s ballistic missile launches as serious and grave provocative acts threatening peace and safety not only on the Korean Peninsula but also in Northeast Asia and in the international community,” deputy presidential spokesperson Lee Jae-myoung said in a statement.
“They agreed that South Korea and Japan should work together in order to strictly respond to North Korea,” he said.
Yoon and Kishida also shared the understanding that North Korea’s “reckless provocations” must be stopped and that the North must be sent a clear message that “provocations come with consequences.”
The two leaders said trilateral cooperation between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan will be important in achieving this end, along with firm solidarity with the international community, including the U.N. Security Council, according to Lee.
North Korea’s six missile launches in under two weeks have been in apparent protest of recent military exercises involving South Korea, the U.S. and Japan, including the redeployment of the U.S. aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan to South Korean waters the previous day.
The North’s foreign ministry condemned the redeployment Thursday, saying the North is “watching the U.S. posing a serious threat to the stability of the situation on the Korean peninsula.”
Yoon and Kishida held their first one-on-one talks on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York last month, sharing “serious concern” about North Korea’s nuclear program, including the possibility of a seventh nuclear test and its recent adoption of a law mandating the use of nuclear weapons in scenarios where its leadership is under threat.
They also agreed on the need to improve relations between the two countries by resolving pending issues, according to the presidential office.
The agreement came as the two countries have been locked in a protracted row over wartime forced labor and other issues related to Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
During Thursday’s call, the leaders noted the two countries are partners that need to work together to address various global issues and “assessed the positive trend” in bilateral relations, including their New York meeting, and agreed to continue related diplomatic efforts, Lee said.
“The two leaders also agreed to frequently have candid communication on various issues, including security issues,” he said.
Source: Yonhap News Agency