U.S. President Joe Biden met Friday with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at a time when cooperation between common enemies China, Russia and North Korea is causing alarm.
"I want to thank you both for the political courage that has brought you here today," Biden said from the presidential residence at Camp David, Maryland. And he said their countries are stronger and the world "safer" when they are united.
The trilateral summit is the first to be held by the leaders of the three countries without any other guests. "Today will be remembered as a historic day," Biden said.
From left to right, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol; U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at Camp David on Aug. 18, 2023.Andrew Harnik/AP
U.S. government officials told The Associated Press that the three countries have reached a security agreement, pledging to consult with each other in the event of a crisis or threat in the Pacific.
Biden met Friday morning privately first with President Yoon, and then mid-morning with Kishida. The three are expected to participate in a meeting in the afternoon.
The Chinese government criticized the meeting in advance, accusing the United States on Friday and its allies of creating blocs "for confrontation in the Asia-Pacific region," according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin, who added that an alliance would be "unpopular."
A nuclear missile capable of penetrating the United States
News of the summit and agreement comes amid concerns about North Korea's nuclear threat and China's naval maneuvers in the Pacific.
A recent report obtained by our sister network NBC News notes that the extraordinary advances in North Korean long-range missile technology are likely due to the regime's cooperation with Russia.
North Korea is believed to have conducted a successful test launch of a nuclear-capable intercontinental missile (ISBM) equipped to penetrate U.S. missile defenses in July.
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Analysts consider this military milestone of Kim Jong Un's regime to be the result of technical cooperation with Russia, according to NBC News.
This is the Hwasong-18, a missile whose physical characteristics and flight path make it appear "almost identical" to those of Russia's Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile, according to the report prepared by Dr. Theodore A. Postol, professor emeritus of science, technology and national security policy at MIT. The report was written for Beyond Parallel, a project sponsored by the Center for Strategic and International Studies' advocacy think tank.
A Hwasong-18 missile during a military parade in Pyongyang, North Korea, July 27, 2023.
The new missile represents a sudden and significant advance of North Korea's ballistic missile arsenal, according to North Korea's own pronouncements confirmed by U.S. officials. The rocket runs on solid fuel, making it harder for Western intelligence to detect than liquid-propellant intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Last month's test, observed by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, was the first successful launch of a solid-fuel ICBM. The test also demonstrated the Hwasong-18's ability to launch multiple thermonuclear warheads capable of reaching Washington, the report said, and deploy decoy cartridge countermeasures to evade the country's missile defenses.
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"The sudden emergence of these advanced capabilities is difficult to explain without the cooperation of the Russian government and its scientists," Postol wrote.
Russia's supply of such capabilities to North Korea would mark a significant escalation of growing military cooperation between the two countries, as well as being in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions signed by Russia banning support for North Korea's ballistic missile program.
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The United States has accused North Korea of supplying artillery munitions to Russia to support its war in Ukraine, and North Korea receives food and energy from Russia in return. The Treasury Department announced new sanctions this week against three entities linked to a network to evade U.S. sanctions and support arms deals between the two countries.
Russia and North Korea have denied such arms transfers. But the two countries, which have had friendly relations since the Cold War, have made no secret of their increasingly close military collaboration amid a regime of heavy international sanctions.
Two weeks after the test, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was received in Pyongyang for the 70th anniversary of the Korean War armistice on July 25 and met there with Kim. Ahead of Shoigu's visit, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that the meeting would help "strengthen Russia's and North Korea's military ties."
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Kim sent a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin touting the "militant friendship and solidarity" established between their countries during the Korean War and saying they are now "demonstrating their invincibility and might in the struggle to crush the arbitrary and hegemonic practices of the imperialists."
"Historically, Russia has always been very transactional and opportunistic on the Korean peninsula, and now they see an opportunity here," said Victor Cha, senior vice president for Asia and Korea at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "They need the ammunition and North Korea has plenty. They have an army of 1.1 million men. They have a lot of ammunition. And North Korea needs ballistic missiles, ballistic missile technology."
Kim ordered a sharp increase in North Korea's missile production and visited major munitions factories this week.
"It is very difficult to get the United States, Korea and Japan to unite trilaterally because of all the internal historical problems," Cha explained, but "the war in Ukraine has changed everything. It has changed the way everyone views security."
North Korea's provocations are a major focus of Friday's trilateral summit between the United States, South Korea and Japan. The three allies are set to announce a historic plan to bolster mutual security ties, including an intelligence-sharing agreement on missile threats, regular joint military exercises and a new crisis hotline between the three, senior administration officials said.