The following is the joint statement released by the Vice Foreign Ministers of the Republic of Korea and Japan and the Deputy Secretary of State of the United States.

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The 1st Vice Foreign Minister of the Republic of Korea Kim Hong Kyun, the Deputy Secretary of State of the United States of America Kurt M. Campbell, and the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan Okano Masataka met in Seoul on October 16, 2024. This second meeting of the year of the Vice Ministers and the Deputy Secretary highlights our shared commitment to upholding the spirit and principles made during the Trilateral Leaders’ Summit at Camp David. The Republic of Korea, the United States, and Japan stand united in our shared values to address common regional and global challenges and promote human rights, democracy, security and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.

The Vice Ministers and the Deputy Secretary welcomed the progress made across multiple lines of efforts to broaden the scope of our trilateral partnership in the Indo-Pacific region, including through the trilateral Indo-Pacific Dialogue. They applauded the successful inaugural trilateral multi-domain exercise Freedom Edge and the signing of the Memorandum of Cooperation on the Trilateral Security Cooperation Framework that illustrate the three countries’ shared commitment to enhance peace and stability throughout the region.

The Vice Ministers and the Deputy Secretary strongly condemned the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s continued belligerent rhetoric and violations of multiple United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions through continued development of its nuclear and ballistic missile programs as well as ballistic missile launches and other provocative actions. They reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in accordance with UNSC resolutions. The Deputy Secretary reiterated that the United States’ commitments to the defense of the ROK and Japan are ironclad, and reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to strengthen extended deterrence provided through the ROK-U.S. Alliance and the Japan-U.S. Alliance.

The Vice Ministers and the Deputy Secretary acknowledged their support for President Yoon’s vision of a free, peaceful and prosperous Korean Peninsula and reiterated their support for a unified Korean Peninsula that is free and at peace. The Vice Ministers and the Deputy Secretary reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening cooperation to promote human rights in the DPRK and called for the immediate resolution of the issues of abductees, detainees, and unrepatriated prisoners of war. The Vice Ministers and the Deputy Secretary expressed grave concern over deepening military cooperation between the DPRK and Russia, including arms transfers in violation of relevant UNSC resolutions. They expressed their grave concern over the DPRK’s illicit arms transfer, malicious cyber activities, and dispatch of workers abroad to fund its unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs, and decided to continue our trilateral efforts focused on combatting them.

The Vice Ministers and the Deputy Secretary reaffirmed their commitment to firmly respond to any violation or evasion of UNSC resolutions on the DPRK as well as any attempt to undermine the global non-proliferation regime. In this regard, the Vice Ministers and the Deputy Secretary expressed their commitment to the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT) towards reinstating comprehensive and effective sanctions monitoring and reporting mechanism regarding UN sanctions on the DPRK.

As our respective countries are current members of the United Nations Security Council, the Vice Ministers and the Deputy Secretary committed to work together to uphold the Council’s primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. The Vice Ministers and the Deputy Secretary expressed deep concern over the deteriorating situation in the Middle East. They called on all regional players to act responsibly and with restraint, and encouraged all parties to engage constructively to de-escalate the current tensions. Condemning in the strongest possible terms Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, they expressed support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine in line with the principles of the UN Charter and reaffirmed to coordinate even more closely to support Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, recovery and reconstruction, and efforts to hold Russia accountable for its actions.

The Vice Ministers and the Deputy Secretary strongly opposed any unilateral attempts to change the status quo in the waters of the Indo-Pacific and recognized the importance of opposing unlawful maritime claims in the South China Sea. They renewed their commitment to a free and open international order based on the rule of law. They expressed their support for the global maritime order based on international law as reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and for the freedom of navigation and overflight. They expressed concerns about illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.

They reaffirmed the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as an indispensable element of security and prosperity in the international community. They are concerned about provocative actions, particularly the recent military drills around Taiwan and they concurred that no further actions should be taken that could undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. There is no change in our basic positions on Taiwan, and we call for the peaceful resolution of cross-Strait issues.

The Vice Ministers and the Deputy Secretary renewed their commitment to deepening trilateral partnership on the economic security, and critical and emerging technology spheres. They recognized the Minerals Security Partnership (MSP) as a crucial institutional forum to accelerate the development of a diverse and sustainable critical minerals supply chain. They also welcomed the ROK’s assumption of chairmanship of the MSP and committed themselves to closely cooperate towards accelerating MSP projects. They commended the Trilateral Economic Security Dialogue for deepening trilateral engagements on economic security issues, and lauded active consultation among our overseas missions for exchanging timely information through supply chain early warning system (EWS) pilots and the scenario-based discussion in September. They concurred on the need to build upon this shared collaboration on technology security, standards, and trusted ecosystems, and decided to develop a trilateral framework to further advance our next generation technology cooperation. They acknowledged the successful launch of the Trilateral Technology Leaders Training Program in June which served to train and connect policymakers in key sectors such as semiconductors, AI, quantum technology, biotechnology, cybersecurity, energy, and space. They look forward to the ROK’s hosting of APEC in 2025 and commit to working together to achieve meaningful outcomes.

The Vice Ministers and the Deputy Secretary noted the expanding people-to-people ties between the three countries and discussed ways to continue to maintain and build upon the momentum. They applauded the successful first Trilateral Global Leadership Youth Summit and looked forward to the second Youth Summit in the Kansai region of Japan in 2025. They further expressed their support for the newly launched Young Trilateral Leaders (YTL) program, which aims to foster dialogue among each of our countries and push for concrete action by young people on our shared economic, security, and global challenges, that connected future leaders of the three countries. They also renewed their commitment to promote women’s economic empowerment including through the participation in the Trilateral Conference on Women’s Economic Empowerment that will be held in Washington D.C. later this year.

The Vice Ministers and the Deputy Secretary highlighted the progress in devising a trilateral coordinating mechanism, and reiterated their shared commitment to finalize the establishment of the trilateral coordinating mechanism by the next round of the Trilateral Summit. The Vice Ministers and the Deputy Secretary also recognized the importance of the Vice Foreign Ministerial Meeting as an effective institutional channel to further ROK-U.S.-Japan trilateral partnership and committed to continue close consultation.

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