US Stresses Allied Cooperation in Face of N. Korea Threats

08 June 2022, South Korea, Seoul: South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong (C) poses with his US counterpart, Wendy Sherman (R), and his Japanese counterpart, Takeo Mori, during their talks on North Korean provocations at the Foreign Ministry. (dpa)
08 June 2022, South Korea, Seoul: South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong (C) poses with his US counterpart, Wendy Sherman (R), and his Japanese counterpart, Takeo Mori, during their talks on North Korean provocations at the Foreign Ministry. (dpa)
TT
20

US Stresses Allied Cooperation in Face of N. Korea Threats

08 June 2022, South Korea, Seoul: South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong (C) poses with his US counterpart, Wendy Sherman (R), and his Japanese counterpart, Takeo Mori, during their talks on North Korean provocations at the Foreign Ministry. (dpa)
08 June 2022, South Korea, Seoul: South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong (C) poses with his US counterpart, Wendy Sherman (R), and his Japanese counterpart, Takeo Mori, during their talks on North Korean provocations at the Foreign Ministry. (dpa)

US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman met with her counterparts from South Korea and Japan on Wednesday, emphasizing the US commitment to defend its allies and trilateral security cooperation to confront an accelerating nuclear threat from North Korea.

The latest top-level meetings between the countries came as North Korea apparently presses ahead with preparations for its first nuclear test explosion in nearly five years, which US officials say could occur in the coming days.

After a meeting in Seoul, Sherman and the South Korean and Japanese vice foreign ministers issued a joint statement condemning North Korea’s provocative streak in weapons demonstrations this year and pledging closer security cooperation to curb the growing threats.

The statement said Sherman reaffirmed "steadfast" US commitments to the defense of South Korea and Japan, including "extended deterrence,” referring to an assurance to defend its allies with its full military capabilities, including nuclear.

"The United States, the Republic of Korea and Japan are fully and closely aligned on the DPRK," Sherman said in a news conference, using the initials of North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Sherman noted that North Korea since last September has significantly increased the pace and scale of its ballistic launches, posing a "serious threat" to security in the region and beyond, and urged Pyongyang to cease taking "these provocative and destabilizing actions and to commit to the path of diplomacy."

Jolting an old pattern of brinkmanship, North Korea has already set an annual record in ballistic launches through the first six months of 2022, firing 31 missiles over 18 test events, including its first demonstrations of intercontinental ballistic missiles since 2017.

The unusually fast pace in testing activity underscores authoritarian leader Kim Jong Un’s dual intent to advance his arsenal and pressure the Biden administration over long-stalled negotiations aimed at leveraging its nukes for economic and security concessions, experts say.

Sherman’s visit to Asia came after North Korea in its biggest-ever single-day testing event launched eight ballistic missiles into the sea from multiple locations on Sunday, prompting the US and its Asian allies to respond with tit-for-tat missile launches and aerial demonstrations involving dozens of fighter jets.

A nuclear test would further escalate North Korea’s pressure campaign and could possibly allow the country to claim it acquired the technologies to build a bomb small enough to be clustered on a multi-warhead ICBM or on Kim’s broad range of shorter-range weapons threatening South Korea and Japan.

South Korean and US officials have said the North has all but finished preparations for a detonation at its nuclear testing ground in the remote northeastern town of Punggye-ri, an assessment backed by the International Atomic Energy, which says there are indications that one of the site’s passages has been reopened. The site had been inactive since hosting the country’s sixth nuclear test in September 2017, when it claimed it detonated a thermonuclear bomb designed for its ICBMs.

North Korea will likely time the test to maximize political effect and some analysts say it could take place around a major conference of the ruling Workers’ Party that has been vaguely scheduled for the first half of June.

North Korea’s state media said Wednesday that Politburo members met a day earlier to discuss the agenda for an upcoming plenary meeting of the party’s Central Committee that has been called by Kim to review major state affairs, including national efforts to slow a COVID-19 outbreak. He may also use the meeting to address his nuclear weapons ambitions and external relations with Washington and Seoul, experts say.

Kim’s absence from Tuesday’s preparatory meeting suggests that he’s focused on supervising preparations for North Korea’s seventh nuclear test and drafting his speeches for the plenary, said analyst Cheong Seong-Chang at South Korea’s Sejong Institute.

The North Korean party’s previous plenary in December lasted for a record five days and saw Kim repeat his vow to boost his country’s military capabilities and order the production of more powerful and sophisticated weapons systems.

Nuclear talks between the US and North Korea have stalled since 2019 because of disagreements over an easing of crippling US-led sanctions in exchange for North Korean disarmament steps, which underscored Kim's unwillingness to give away an arsenal he sees as his strongest guarantee of survival.

Kim’s government has so far rejected the Biden administration’s offers of open-ended talks, and is clearly intent on converting the dormant denuclearization negotiations into a mutual arms-reduction process, experts say.



EU Increases Pressure on Türkiye after Arrest of Imamoglu

Demonstrators gather in front of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, eastern France, on March 27, 2025 during a rally in support of Istanbul's arrested mayor Ekrem Imamoglu. (Photo by Frederick FLORIN / AFP)
Demonstrators gather in front of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, eastern France, on March 27, 2025 during a rally in support of Istanbul's arrested mayor Ekrem Imamoglu. (Photo by Frederick FLORIN / AFP)
TT
20

EU Increases Pressure on Türkiye after Arrest of Imamoglu

Demonstrators gather in front of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, eastern France, on March 27, 2025 during a rally in support of Istanbul's arrested mayor Ekrem Imamoglu. (Photo by Frederick FLORIN / AFP)
Demonstrators gather in front of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, eastern France, on March 27, 2025 during a rally in support of Istanbul's arrested mayor Ekrem Imamoglu. (Photo by Frederick FLORIN / AFP)

The European Union is ratcheting up pressure on Türkiye over the detention of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, as tensions in the country escalate two weeks after his arrest.

Addressing the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday, EU Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos voiced the EU’s strong concern regarding the arrest of Imamoglu.

Kos said that because of what happened in the country, she has cancelled her participation in the diplomatic forum in Antalya which will take place from April 11 to 13 and will not go to Ankara to confer with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

During the parliament’s debate, which focused on the “crackdown on democracy in Türkiye” and the arrest of Imamoglu, Kos said that as a candidate country for EU membership and a member of the Council of Europe, Türkiye is expected to apply the highest democratic standards and practices, including regarding freedom of assembly, freedom of the press, and free and fair elections.

She emphasized Türkiye’s strategic importance to Europe, saying “shutting down our channels and areas of cooperation will not benefit anyone, especially the people of Türkiye.”

Also, Emmanouil Kefalogiannis, Chair of the European Parliament’s (EP) Delegation to the EU-Türkiye Joint Parliamentary Committee (KPK), announced he will not attend the committee meeting planned for April 14-15.

EP’s Türkiye Rapporteur Nacho Sanchez Amor welcomed Kos’s decision to skip the Antalya Diplomacy Forum and the EP’s decision to withdraw from the KPK meeting.

On his X account, Amor wrote: “Membership is about democracy. Türkiye’s geopolitical position alone will not be enough to open the doors of the European Union.”

Ankara applied to join the European Union in 1999. But since 2018, accession negotiations have stalled, due to the deteriorating state of the country’s democracy and its relations with the EU.

Meanwhile, the Turkish police detained 11 people suspected of spreading calls for a one-day shopping boycott as part of an ongoing protest against the arrest of Imamoglu.

Main opposition leader Ozgur Ozel had earlier called for a “no shopping day,” scheduled for Wednesday April 2 only, to support 301 students who have been arrested and detained for taking part in the protests.

On Thursday, the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office issued a decision to release the 11 suspects, who are not allowed to leave the country.

Among those detained was actor Cem Yigit Uzumoglu, who played Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror in the Netflix docuseries “Rise of Empires: Ottoman,” the Actors’ Union said.

Earlier, the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office had issued arrest warrants for 16 suspects in an investigation into “hatred and discrimination” and “inciting hatred and hostility” among the public, state news agency Anadolu reported. Five of them were later released.

At the headquarters of the Republican People's Party (CHP) in Ankara, Ozel said he will organize a rally every weekend in support of Imamoglu.