The leaders of Japan, the United States and South Korea are planning to meet in mid-November in response to rising tensions over North Korea, government sources said Friday.
The leaders are expected to meet on the sidelines of ASEAN-related gatherings in Cambodia or the summit of the Group of 20 major economies in Indonesia. It would be their first trilateral meeting since they met in June in Spain.
The proposed talks emerged as North Korea has been ramping up ballistic missile launches at an unprecedented pace, with fears growing that the country may conduct its seventh nuclear test, the first since September 2017, in the run-up to the U.S. midterm elections on Tuesday.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, U.S. President Joe Biden and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol are slated to focus on ways to enhance defense cooperation to intensify pressure on North Korea, according to the sources.
The three leaders are likely to share their concerns over North Korea's nuclear and missile development programs, and discuss measures for its complete denuclearization.
Citing heightened tensions over the Korean Peninsula, one source said, "A Japan-U.S.-South Korea summit meeting is of the highest priority."
Kishida will also request that Seoul and Washington assist Tokyo's efforts to immediately resolve North Korea's abductions of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s.
After the June summit, the three countries on Sept. 30 held anti-submarine drills in international waters off the Sea of Japan for the first time in five years. The exercises involved the U.S. aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan.
North Korea under leader Kim Jong Un has recently conducted a spate of missile launches, including one that flew over the Japanese archipelago for the first time in five years on Oct. 4, increasing regional tensions.
On Thursday, North Korea launched three ballistic missiles in the early morning and a further three overnight. One of the first three launched during the early hours is believed to have been a Hwasong-17, an intercontinental ballistic missile. The others are all believed to have been short-range ballistic projectiles.
All six missiles fell into the Sea of Japan. The launch of the ICBM apparently failed, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said, citing a defense source.
During talks in Germany on Thursday, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned North Korea's actions, calling its series of ballistic missile launches an incontestable and serious challenge to the international community.
In a meeting at the Pentagon the same day, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and South Korean Defense Minister Lee Jong Sup agreed to further strengthen the bilateral alliance's capabilities, so as to better deter and respond to North Korean threats.
Lee said he and Austin affirmed that any nuclear attack by North Korea, including the use of tactical nuclear weapons, would result in the "end of the Kim Jong Un regime by the overwhelming and decisive response of the alliance," referring to the country's leader by name.
Related coverage:
North Korea keeps firing missiles, including suspected ICBM
U.S., South Korea warn North Korea any nuke attack would end Kim regime
Japan, U.S., South Korea agree to beef up deterrence against North Korea
