Biden praises cooperation at meeting with South Korean, Japanese leaders amid North Korea worries

LIMA, Peru (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday praised the cooperation between South Korea, Japan and the U.S. at countering what he described as North Korea’s “dangerous and destabilizing cooperation with Russia.”

Biden spoke at the start of a meeting in Peru with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. The talks came amid heightened concerns about North Korea’s growing military partnership with Russia and Pyongyang’s stepped-up cadence of ballistic missile tests.

Biden celebrated the partnership between Japan and South Korea, two countries that have historical enmity but under Biden’s presidency are now tightening security and economic ties as their corner of the world becomes more complicated.

Biden noted that it would be his last meeting with them but that the trilateral partnership should be preserved for years to come.

“I’m proud of how far we’ve come,” Biden said. “Whatever the issue, we’ve taken it on together.”

It comes as North Korea has deployed thousands of troops to Russia to help Moscow try to claw back land in the Kursk border region that Ukraine seized earlier this year.

“As we can see from the recent deployment of DPRK troops to Russia, the challenging security environment within and outside the region once again reminds us the importance of our trilateral cooperation,” Yoon said, using the initials for North Korea’s formal name and speaking through a translator.

Ishiba also emphasized the importance of the three nations acting as a bulwark against North Korea and pointed to recent military exercises between the three nations as a sign of cooperation.

A three-day exercise in June was geared toward improving joint ballistic missile defense, anti-submarine warfare, surveillance and other skills and capabilities and to help the three countries improve their ability to share missile warnings — increasingly important as North Korea tests ever-more sophisticated systems.

“I look forward to furthering our partnership in response against North Korea and in many other areas,” Ishiba said through a translator.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered a series of ballistic missile tests in the lead-up to this month’s U.S. election and is claiming progress on efforts to build capability to strike the U.S. mainland.

White House officials are concerned that Pyongyang could be dialed up for more provocative action ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration and the early days of his administration.

“I do not think we can count on a period of quiet with the DPRK,” said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan. “The transitions have historically been time periods when the DPRK has taken provocative actions both before and after the transition from one president to a new president.”

Biden, Yoon, and Ishiba’s conversation largely focused on the growing threat caused by North Korea and Russia’s cooperation, according to a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the private conversations. The official said Trump and how the change in administration might affect the trilateral relationship did not come up.

Biden is on a six-day visit to Latin America for the final major international summits of his presidency, following up APEC with a gathering in Brazil of leaders from the Group of 20 top economies. He’s likely to face questions from world leaders about the incoming administration as they turn their attention to what Donald Trump’s return to the White House will mean for them.

Biden took part in an informal meeting with other APEC leaders and met with Peru President Dina Boluarte. Biden thanked her for Peru’s efforts to counter drug trafficking and noted the $65 million the U.S. is providing her country over the next five years to assist in that effort, including nine Blackhawk helicopters.

Biden also met one-on-one with Ishiba — their first in-person since the Japanese prime minister took office on Oct. 1 — ahead of the three-country meeting focused on North Korea-Russia ties.

The introduction of North Korean troops to the Russia-Ukraine conflict comes as Moscow has seen a favorable shift in momentum. Trump has signaled that he could push Ukraine to agree to give up some land seized by Russia to find an end to the conflict.

Up to 12,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia, according to U.S., South Korean and Ukrainian assessments.

U.S. and South Korean intelligence officials say North Korea also has provided Russia with significant amounts of munitions to replenish its dwindling weapons stockpiles.

The talks between the U.S., South Korea and Japan follow up on a partnership launched at a historic 2023 meeting at the U.S. presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland.

Biden nudged Japan and South Korea to put aside years of historic animosity and strengthen economic and security ties as they confront the threat from North Korea and increasing military assertiveness by China in the Pacific.

The three countries signed a pledge agreeing to consult, share information and align their messaging with each other in the face of a threat or crisis.

Sullivan said the Biden administration is working to ensure the three-country cooperation is “an enduring feature of American policy.” He expects it would continue under Trump, noting its bipartisan support, but acknowledged it was up to the incoming president’s team.

Both Yoon and Ishiba already have reached out to Trump and are aiming to keep their countries’ relationships with the incoming administration on steady footing amid the heightened tensions.

Just hours before Election Day in the U.S., North Korea fired a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles into the sea.

Those launches came days after Kim supervised a flight test of the country’s newest intercontinental ballistic missile designed to be able to reach the U.S. mainland. In response, the United States flew a long-range B-1B bomber in a trilateral drill with South Korea and Japan on Sunday in a show of force.

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Santana reported from Washington.