{"id":79374,"date":"2022-02-13T14:19:04","date_gmt":"2022-02-13T08:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/in-hawaii-blinken-aims-for-a-united-front-with-allies-on-north-korea\/"},"modified":"2022-02-13T14:19:04","modified_gmt":"2022-02-13T08:49:04","slug":"in-hawaii-blinken-aims-for-a-united-front-with-allies-on-north-korea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/in-hawaii-blinken-aims-for-a-united-front-with-allies-on-north-korea\/","title":{"rendered":"In Hawaii, Blinken Aims for a United Front With Allies on North Korea"},"content":{"rendered":"
HONOLULU \u2014 Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and the foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan on Saturday presented a unified front against North Korea\u2019s recent missile tests, which the country has been conducting at its fastest rate in years.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it is clear to all of us that the D.P.R.K. is in a phase of provocation,\u201d Mr. Blinken said at a news conference in Honolulu after an afternoon of meetings. He said the three countries would \u201ccontinue to hold the D.P.R.K. accountable,\u201d using an abbreviation for North Korea\u2019s formal name, the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea.<\/p>\n
But all three officials said their governments were open to talks with the North, even as they condemned the recent tests. \u201cWe reaffirmed that diplomacy and dialogue with North Korea is more important than ever,\u201d Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong of South Korea said.<\/p>\n
Mr. Blinken\u2019s appearance with Mr. Chung and Yoshimasa Hayashi, the foreign minister of Japan, was meant to be a signal moment in the Biden administration\u2019s efforts to defuse a potential crisis with North Korea. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The governments of South Korea and Japan have recently had disagreements over how to deal with the North. Seoul wants to offer more diplomatic enticements to Pyongyang, while Tokyo advocates a harder line, veering more toward harsher United Nations sanctions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
So far this year, North Korea has conducted seven missile tests, more than in all of 2021.<\/p>\n
Officials with the United States and its allies were particularly alarmed by the North\u2019s Jan. 30 test, which they said was of an intermediate-range ballistic missile, the most powerful missile the country had tested since 2017. It raised the specter of a return to the tensions of President Donald J. Trump\u2019s first year in office, when the North tested long-range missiles and a nuclear device, and Mr. Trump threatened to unleash \u201cfire and fury\u201d in return. <\/p>\n