US envoy to meet with Japanese and South Korean counterparts next week in Tokyo
- Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman is to have discussions with deputy foreign ministers about China, North Korea and Russia
- Trip comes as concerns grow that Pyongyang may be preparing for another nuclear weapon test
Washington’s No 2 diplomat will travel to Tokyo next week to meet with her counterparts from Japan and South Korea amid rising tensions with China and North Korea.
The visit by US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will come just days after Chinese leader Xi Jinping is expected to grasp an unprecedented third term as the country’s paramount leader at the 20th party congress.
The trip also comes as concerns grow in Washington and elsewhere that Pyongyang, which has conducted a slew of missile tests in recent months, may also be preparing another nuclear weapon test – which would be the country’s seventh.
“We will discuss a range of issues, including the DPRK’s numerous ballistic missile launches this year, the PRC, and Russia’s unprovoked and devastating war against Ukraine,” a senior State Department official said on Thursday, using the acronyms for North Korea and China’s official diplomatic names.
Sherman’s talks with Takeo Mori, Japan’s vice-minister of foreign affairs, and Cho Hyun-dong, South Korea’s first vice-minister of foreign affairs, constitute the fourth regularly scheduled “trilateral” meeting for the deputies.
They last spoke on October 4 after one of the North Korean missile launches, the State Department official said.
