US, Seoul, Tokyo vow 'complete' N.Korea denuclearization

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi on Friday reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearization of North Korea during talks on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Atlanta, according to the US State Department. The three diplomats pledged full implementation of UN Security Council resolutions targeting revenue for Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programmes, the State Department added. The meeting came as speculation mounts over a potential encounter between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at next month's APEC summit in China.

North Korea's defiance

Trump has made repeated overtures to Pyongyang for nuclear talks while scaling back joint military drills with ally South Korea. The US leader last year told reporters he was "100 percent" open to meeting Kim — a suggestion that went unanswered — and bucked long-held policy by conceding that North Korea was already "sort of a nuclear power", analysts noted.

Despite long-running UN sanctions, Pyongyang has enshrined its status as a nuclear-armed state in law, with its regime repeatedly declaring its atomic arsenal permanent and irreversible. On Saturday, North Korea denounced a joint statement by sanctions monitors, vowing that "the stereotyped sanctions racket of the US and the West can neither influence the position of the DPRK (North Korea) as a nuclear weapons state". South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung suggested in September that Washington seek a freeze, rather than immediate elimination, of the North's nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief.