Japan, U.S., South Korea to push North Korea on nukes

TOKYO (AP) — Senior officials from Japan, the United States and South Korea agreed Thursday to step up pressure on North Korea as they stick to their goal of persuading the communist state to abandon its nuclear weapons.

Their pledge comes just two days after U.S. National Intelligence Director James Clapper publicly called that goal a “lost cause.” He said the best hope is capping its capability instead.

The deputy foreign ministers who held talks in Tokyo made clear that North Korea now poses a new level of threat and requires broader international pressure and tougher sanctions.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken, after meeting with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts, said their policy has not changed.

“We will not accept North Korea as nuclear state, we will not accept North Korea’s possession of nuclear weapons, period,” he said. “We are focused on increasing the pressure on North Korea with one purpose: to bring it back to the table to negotiate in good faith. Denuclearization. That is the objective.”