President Yoon Suk Yeol will stress that the North Korean nuclear issue is an urgent task that South Korea, the U.S. and Japan should jointly address during a three-way summit with U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Spain on Wednesday.
 
In a press briefing in Madrid earlier in the day, an official of Seoul’s presidential office said that Yoon, during the trilateral summit, will underline the principle of responding sternly to any provocation from North Korea
 
The South Korean president will also propose that the three countries closely cooperate to induce Pyongyang to return to the dialogue table, the official said.
 
According to the presidential official, the upcoming summit will serve as a venue where South Korea, the U.S. and Japan, which share basic values such as a liberal democracy, human rights and the rule of law, will see eye to eye on the importance of their trilateral cooperation.
 
The three leaders will share the view that the continued progress in North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs poses a serious threat not only to the Korean Peninsula but to East Asia and the international community.
 
They will also discuss ways to upgrade their countries’ security cooperation, the official added.

The trilateral summit, the first of its kind in nearly five years, will be held for about 25 minutes from 9:30 p.m., Korean time, on the sidelines of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization(NATO) summit.