Advertisement

China urged to boost defence talks with US, Japan, South Korea as trio joins hands on Pyongyang nuclear threat

  • Tripartite deal on Nato sidelines comes amid fears that North Korea is poised to carry out its first nuclear test since 2017
  • Immediate serious challenge to Beijing unlikely, but provocative acts from a goaded North Korea might pose a problem, analysts warn

Reading Time:3 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
25
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks during a meeting with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Madrid, Spain, on June 29. Photo: EPA-EFE
China should step up defence dialogue with Japan, South Korea and the United States, defence experts have advised, after the two US allies and Washington agreed to boost security ties over North Korean missile and nuclear threats.
While the tripartite move, announced on the sidelines of a Nato summit in Madrid, was unlikely to pose an immediate, serious challenge to Beijing, plans for joint exercises might push the North into more provocative acts, the analysts warned.

The three-way meeting came amid a push towards improving Tokyo-Seoul ties following a change of guard in South Korea, and fears of North Korea carrying out its first nuclear test since 2017.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida asserted the importance of mutual cooperation, citing his “deep concerns” over the possibility of further provocation by North Korea, including nuclear testing.

The North has raised tensions on the Korean peninsula since the start of the year with repeated ballistic missile launches.

“The deterrence capabilities of the Japan-US and US-South Korea alliances need to be upgraded as part of the essential effort to strengthen the trilateral partnership,” he told the meeting hailed as “historic” by the White House.

Should such a nuclear test take place, the response would be at the trilateral level, including joint exercises, Kishida emphasised.

02:37

North Korea may be preparing for its first nuclear test in 5 years

North Korea may be preparing for its first nuclear test in 5 years
Advertisement