The top diplomats of the Group of Seven countries have expressed their concerns over the human rights violations in North Korea and urged the North to refrain from provocative actions and to return to talks.
They ve also called for a strengthening of cooperation to respond to the North s cyberattacks which fund its weapons programs.
The ministers also expressed concerns over some countries not enforcing international sanctions placed on the regime.
The joint statement, issued at the end of the G7 Foreign and Development Ministers meeting in London on Wednesday, reads: we call on North Korea to refrain from provocative actions and to engage in a diplomatic process with the explicit goal of denuclearization. We remain committed to the goal of complete, verifiable and irreversible abandonment of all of North Korea s unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs in accordance with relevant UN Security Council resolution.
The U.S. has clarified that its policy towards North Korea is not aimed at hostility but at solutions to ultimately reach the goal of completely denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, in an interview with ABC News on Sunday, said the U.S. is prepared to engage in diplomacy towards that ultimate objective, but will work on practical measures that can help make progress along the way. This is in response to North Korea accusing President Joe Biden of making a big mistake, and telling the U.S. that it will find itself in a very difficult situation in a statement carried by the North s state media on Sunday.
President Moon Jae-in says the time is drawing near for the two Koreas to resume dialogue and end long deliberation emphasizing the significance of the historic summit deal in 2018.
The president was speaking on the third anniversary of the signing of the Panmunjeom Declaration with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that called for joint efforts to achieve co-prosperity and establish lasting peace. The Panmumjeom Declaration is a milestone of peace that can be undermined by no one. Under no circumstance will the Declaration, a vow for pursuing the path to peace, be reversed. The achievements to realize the Declaration have faced many challenges but it has been managed securely without military clashes while withstanding big and small hardships in inter-Korean relations.
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fears.
A website run by the North s Sports Ministry said its national Olympic Committee had decided not to participate in the Games to protect its athletes from the Covid-19 pandemic.
This will be the first time North Korea has missed a Summer Olympics since it boycotted Seoul in 1988.
It s a blow to South Korea s hopes of using the Games to engage with the North as the sporting event this summer had been considered one of the last-remaining chances to kickstart the stalled cross border talks before the end of President Moon Jae-in s term next year. When South Korea hosted the Winter Games in PyeongChang in 2018, the North Korean leader sent his sister, Kim Yo-jong, to head his delegation and athletes from the two Koreas entered a joint team which led to the initiation of diplomacy with South Korea and the U.S., including a series of historic summits.