The six APEC countries that condemned North Korea are emerging as new security channels

Korea, USA, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand
Possibility of cooperation on regional security issues
South Korean PM “Strict response to North Korea’s illegal activities”

At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit held in Thailand, six countries, South Korea, the United States, Japan, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, condemned the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) North Korea, is rapidly emerging. as a new security structure. As North Korea’s nuclear and missile developments bring the entire Indo-Pacific into range, the need for a wide-area response that goes beyond South Korea, the United States and Japan is growing. “China has a responsibility to make it clear to North Korea that it should not conduct illegal nuclear tests and missile launches,” US State Department senior deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said on the 18th (local time).

With US public pressure to refrain from North Korean provocations not working and US-North Korea dialogue still being cut off, the US State Department is known to attach considerable importance to joint condemnation of North Korea by the six countries in APEC. On the 18th, at the request of US Vice President Kamala Harris, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanage, were the first six countries to jointly condemn North Korea and this is the result obtained after meeting minutes. In his opening remarks, Prime Minister Han emphasized that “North Korea’s illegal activities can never be tolerated, and the international community must unite and respond decisively.” “On behalf of the United States, I reaffirm our ironclad commitment to our Indo-Pacific Alliance,” said Vice President Harris, “The nations gathered here continue to urge North Korea to engage in diplomacy serious.”

The six countries are the ‘Five Ice’ classified information-sharing alliance (US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand), the anti-China Quad (US, Japan, Australia, India), and NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization ) humanitarian partner (Korea), Japan, Australia, New Zealand) and many other overlapping member countries. In Washington DC diplomats, there is an analysis that the five countries included in the sudden discussion of the United States will actually be a category that the Joe Biden administration considers as a partner in the Indian region. There is also an opinion that the possibility that the six countries will develop into a regional security channel, including North Korea issues, cannot be ruled out.

Washington Correspondent Lee Gyeong-ju and Beijing Ryu Ji-young
Correspondent Yumi Seo from Seoul