US, South Korea and Japan Vow Complete Denuclearisation of North Korea as Trump-Kim Meeting Talk Grows

A united pledge, a divided reality

The United States, South Korea and Japan reaffirmed their commitment to the complete denuclearization of North Korea on Saturday, as Pyongyang continues to reject disarmament ahead of possible talks with Washington Manila Times. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and his Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi reaffirmed their resolute commitment to complete denuclearization during talks on Friday on the sidelines of a Group of 20 meeting in Atlanta in the US state of Georgia, the US State Department said Manila Times.

They also pledged full implementation of UN Security Council resolutions, including a ban on supporting revenue for North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs Manila Times. The language is familiar — it is the same demand the three allies have made for years. What is new is the context: the pledge comes just as speculation grows that President Donald Trump may meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un again, and just as the gap between the allies’ demand and Pyongyang’s position has rarely looked wider.

Pyongyang’s answer: permanent and irreversible

Despite long-running UN sanctions, North Korea, which is backed by Russia and China, has enshrined its status as a nuclear-armed state in law, with its regime repeatedly declaring its atomic arsenal permanent and irreversible Manila Times. Pyongyang denounced a joint statement on Saturday by a group of nations monitoring sanctions implementation against it, vowing that the stereotyped sanctions racket of the US and the West can neither influence the position of North Korea as a nuclear weapons state Manila Times.

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.

That statement, carried by Agence France-Presse, is Pyongyang’s standard response to sanctions pressure, but its timing — the same day as the trilateral pledge — makes it a direct rebuttal. North Korea is not negotiating over whether it keeps nuclear weapons; it is insisting the question is closed.

The show of strength continued in parallel. A picture taken on 29 October and released by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency on 30 October showed 600mm multiple rocket launchers being fired during the Unmanned Aeronautical Technology Development-2026 exhibition in the Wonsan Kalma Coastal Tourist Area in Kangwon Province Manila Times.

The Trump-Kim question

Speculation is mounting over a potential meeting between Trump and Kim at next month’s APEC summit in China, with Trump making repeated overtures to Pyongyang for nuclear talks Manila Times. Trump has made repeated overtures to Pyongyang for nuclear talks, while scaling back joint military drills with ally South Korea Manila Times. The US leader even bucked long-held US policy last year by conceding that North Korea was already “sort of a nuclear power”, while reaching out to Pyongyang for talks, saying he was “100 percent” open to a meeting — a suggestion that went unanswered Manila Times.

Analysts and South Korea’s spy agency say Kim may have conveyed Pyongyang’s position on potential talks with Trump to Beijing during a recent visit to the Chinese border city of Dandong Manila Times. Analysts also say China may be moving towards tacit acceptance of North Korea’s nuclear status, pointing to the omission of North Korean denuclearization from statements after Kim and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in June Manila Times.

The freeze-versus-elimination split

South Korea’s dovish President Lee Jae Myung — who has repeatedly offered Pyongyang talks without preconditions — suggested in September that Washington seek a freeze, rather than the immediate elimination, of the North’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief Manila Times. Critics have said such an approach risks tacitly accepting North Korea as a nuclear-armed state while allowing Pyongyang to win sanctions relief without giving up its arsenal Manila Times.

This is the real debate inside the alliance. The public pledge is “complete denuclearization”. The practical question Seoul is raising is whether a freeze — stopping the program where it is — is a better first step than demanding elimination upfront and getting nothing. Washington and Tokyo have not publicly endorsed the freeze idea, and the Atlanta pledge keeps the maximalist language intact. But the fact that South Korea’s president floated the freeze publicly suggests the allies are not as united on tactics as the joint statement implies.

What happens next

The next marker is the APEC summit in China next month. If Trump and Kim meet, it will be the first leader-level contact in years, and the agenda will reveal whether Washington still demands elimination or is willing to talk about a freeze. If they do not meet, the trilateral pledge stands as the status quo: sanctions, resolutions, and a North Korea that insists its arsenal is permanent. Either way, the Atlanta statement changes nothing on the ground — but it confirms that, for all the talk of a summit, the allies’ official position has not softened by a single word.