If North Korea conducts its 7th nuclear test, South Korea, the United States, and Japan have agreed to strongly joint response in the international community.
Kim Seong-han, head of the National Security Office of the President's Office, met with reporters after the security chiefs of South Korea, the United States and Japan held in Hawaii on the 1st (local time) and said, "If North Korea conducts its 7th nuclear test, the response will definitely be different from what it has been until now." .
Kim explained, "We shared the view that there should never be an easy way or response that North Korea has conducted six nuclear tests, but it is only one more nuclear test."
South Korea, the United States and Japan discussed in detail how to respond to the 7th North Korean nuclear test that day, Kim said.
However, he declined to comment on the content of the discussion, saying, "It is not appropriate to disclose it."
He also emphasized, "We will maximize cooperation in a way that will make (North Korea) realize that the three countries, along with the international community, made a clearly wrong choice during the 7th nuclear test."
There was also a discussion about the 'bold initiative' announced by President Yoon Seok-yeol.
"The United States and Japan have responded quite positively," Kim said.
He said, "The United States and Japan expressed full sympathy for trying to find such a way to bring North Korea into the arena of dialogue through various incentives expressed as bold initiatives."
There was also discussion on the Extended Deterrence Strategy Consultative Group (EDSCG), where the two countries discuss countermeasures against the threat of a North Korean nuclear attack.
Director Kim said, "At the Extended Deterrence Strategy Consultative Group to be held in the middle of this month, we decided to discuss concrete measures to strengthen extended deterrence rather than abstract stories. " he introduced.
The South Korea-U.S.-Japan security commanders also agreed to strengthen cooperation on economic and security issues.
"We have decided to find a way to jointly respond if there is a supply chain disturbance at the global level," said Kim.
After mentioning the semiconductor and battery fields, he introduced that "the problem of supply chain cooperation in the high-tech industry has far more common denominators than differences of opinion."
There was also discussion about the 'Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)', which would allow electric vehicles manufactured in Korea and Japan to be excluded from subsidies from the United States and be discriminated against.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said, "Let's all go home and study the IRA."
In particular, Sullivan said, "IRA is not a law limited to electric vehicles, but rather contains a strategic direction for how to redefine supply chain problems among liberal countries," said Kim.
Director Kim met with Adviser Sullivan and Japanese National Security Agency Director Takeo Akiva at the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii that day.