Korea-US-Japan North Korea Nuclear Representatives "Share Assessment of Supreme People's Assembly of North Korea"

"Closely Monitoring North Korea's Moves and Maintaining Close Cooperation"

The three countries of South Korea, the United States, and Japan shared evaluations of the current situation, including the results of North Korea's Supreme People's Assembly, and discussed cooperation measures.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the 9th, on the same day, Cho Gurae, Director of the Foreign Strategy and Intelligence Bureau, held a trilateral phone consultation with Daniel Kritenbrink, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, and Namazu Hiroyuki, Director-General of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, agreeing to closely monitor North Korea's potential provocations and future actions and to continue close cooperation.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The representatives of the three countries agreed to suppress North Korea's provocations and acts of escalating tensions based on firm South Korea-U.S.-Japan cooperation and to work toward North Korea's complete denuclearization. They also agreed to continue cooperative efforts to lead North Korea toward denuclearization and the path of Korean Peninsula unification, taking advantage of major diplomatic schedules, including the ongoing ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) related summits and upcoming high-level South Korea-U.S.-Japan exchanges.

The U.S. and Japanese representatives reaffirmed their support for the South Korean government's efforts to realize the "Vision for a Unified Korean Peninsula of Freedom, Peace, and Prosperity," based on the spirit of the Camp David trilateral summit.

North Korea announced on the same day that it held the 11th session of the 14th Supreme People's Assembly at the Mansudae Assembly Hall in Pyongyang on the 7th and 8th, revising and supplementing parts of the Socialist Constitution. However, it did not mention the incorporation of territorial provisions and the deletion of the term "unification," which Chairman Kim Jong Un had instructed in January.

At this meeting, the Minister of Defense was replaced from Kang Sun Nam to No Kwang Chol. No Kwang Chol was the Minister of Defense who signed the agreement during the September 19, 2018 inter-Korean military agreement.