Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and his Australian counterpart said Thursday they were firmly united against threats from North Korea, urging the international community to send a strong warning against the North’s provocations.
“It’s not a regional risk but also a global risk,” Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said at a joint press briefing with Yun after their talks here.
She said Australia is working closely with South Korea, the United States, and other partner countries for peace and security in the region.
Bishop said she and Yun discussed a series of the North’s recent provocative acts, including its announcement of success in miniaturizing nuclear bombs and the cancellation of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s trip to a factory park in Gaeseong.
“We sought to understand the implications of that decision,” she said.
Yun also said the two sides agreed on the importance of dealing sternly with the North’s belligerence.
“We shared the view that the advancement of North Korea’s nuclear and missile capabilities and recent internal situations pose a serious threat not only to the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia but also to the entire Asia-Pacific region,” he said. “We agreed that the international community should send a constant message to North Korea so that it can make a right choice.”
The ministers said they also touched on their nations’ plans to participate in the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
“The two sides agreed to actively cooperate for the development of the AIIB as a bank to meet international standards in realizing the purpose of its founding,” Yun said.
It was their eighth meeting and came on the eve of a broader gathering in Seoul also involving foreign ministers from Mexico and Turkey. Indonesia sent a special envoy of its foreign minister to the meeting.
The five countries formed the “MIKTA” group in 2013 to expand their influence on the global stage.
Also Thursday, South Korean President Park Geun-hye met with the foreign ministers and special envoy of “MIKTA.” Park asked them to help address the issue of North Korea’s nuclear weapons programs and such global issues as climate change, according to Park’s office.
Yun and Bishop are scheduled to meet again in Sydney in September in the so-called two-plus-two session to be joined by the defense chiefs of the two countries. (Yonhap)
