Japan, U.S., S. Korea Agree on Strict N. Korea Sanctions

October 19, 2018

Singapore- Japan, the United States and South Korea on Friday agreed to keep working together for the strict implementation of sanctions against North Korea based on U.N. Security Council resolutions.

The agreement came at a meeting in Singapore among Japanese Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis and South Korean National Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo.

"We must carefully watch North Korea's future moves toward denuclearization," Iwaya said during the talks. "It is necessary to call for the full implementation of U.N. Security Council resolutions" against North Korea, he stressed.

"I can understand South Korea has a strong desire to realize peace on the Korean Peninsula, but the unity of Japan, the United States and South Korea must not be shaken by that," Iwaya told reporters after the talks, regarding Seoul's conciliatory attitude toward Pyongyang.

According to Iwaya, Jeong showed intention to seriously consider taking measures against offshore smuggling involving North Korean ships to evade U.N. sanctions.

During the three-way talks, Mattis said that a safe, free and open Indo-Pacific region benefits all countries.

China's development of military bases in the South China Sea is unacceptable, he also said.

In separate talks Friday, Iwaya and Mattis reconfirmed that the only way to avoid the continued use of the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma air station, located in a congested area in the city of Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, is to relocate the facility to the less populated Henoko coastal district in the city of Nago, also in the southernmost Japan prefecture.

Iwaya is visiting Singapore to attend a meeting of defense ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations plus Japan, the United States, South Korea and some other countries. Jiji Press