TRILATERAL VICE MINISTERIAL TALKS HELD

[Anchor Lead]

A trilateral vice foreign ministerial meeting of South Korea, U.S. and Japan was held in Washington. The three sides agreed to enhance deterrence against N. Korea along with trilateral cooperation in tackling diplomatic security issues including China's challenges.

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First Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong held talks with his U.S. and Japanese counterparts Wendy Sherman and Takeo Mori in Washington. It came four months after their previous meeting in Tokyo last October. While agreeing that North Korea's nuclear and missile provocations have reached an unprecedented level, the three sides pledged to work together to achieve the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.

[Soundbite] Cho Hyun-dong(1st Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs) : "Indeed, peace without denuclearization is fake peace."

The cooperation includes enhancing deterrence through trilateral military exercises and taking joint diplomatic actions at the UN Security Council.

[Soundbite] Takeo Mori(Japanese Vice Foreign Minister) : "We concurred on continuing close collaboration among our three countries in enhancing regional security deterrence, cooperation at the UN."

The U.S. noted that China is moving to disturb the existing international order in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region. It stressed that trilateral cooperation is important in tackling China's challenges.

[Soundbite] Wendy Sherman(U.S. Deputy Secretary of State) : "We will remain aligned with the ROK, Japan, other allies and partners worldwide to push back on the PRC behavior that challenges the rules based regional and international order."

However, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman said Washington remains open to dialogue with Beijing, despite the alleged Chinese spy balloon shot down by the U.S. earlier this month. But she declined to elaborate on speculation that Washington and Beijing would hold a high-ranking meeting during the Munich Security Conference, which opens on Friday in Germany.