Three Countries to Unite for Stopping Pyongyang's Nuclear Program

Japanese, US and South Korean special representatives have agreed to strive for Pyongyang's nuclear program after posing possible threat from North Korea, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

TOKYO (Sputnik) — Japanese, US and South Korean special representatives for North Korea's policy have agreed to strive for the termination of Pyongyang's nuclear program after a recent Workers’ Party of Korea (WPK) congress had decided to continue the country's nuclear buildup, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

The position of the three countries was verified during separate telephone talks between head of the Japanese Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanic Affairs Bureau Ishikane Kimihiro, US Special Representative for North Korea Policy Sung Kim and South Korea's Special Representative for Korean Peninsula Kim Hong-kyun, the ministry said in a statement.

The diplomats exchanged opinions regarding the situation on the Korean Peninsula with an emphasis to the WPK congress decision to continue the development of the nuclear program and noted that such a scenario "was simply inadmissible."

The United States, South Korea, China, Japan, and Russia make up five parties, which originally convened for Korean unification and nuclear talks with North Korea in 2003. The six party talks collapsed in 2009 after Pyongyang conducted a nuclear test and withdrew from the dialogue.

On January 6, Pyongyang claimed it had successfully tested a hydrogen bomb. The United Nations previously imposed sanctions on North Korea for three tests it carried out in 2006, 2009 and 2013.

Pyongyang’s January hydrogen bomb test, as well as the launch, a month later, of a long-range rocket to allegedly place a satellite into orbit, in defiance of UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, led to more sanctions having been imposed on North Korea by the UNSC and the United States.