
Barack Obama held a meeting with the President of South Korea and Japan's Prime Minister
The U.S. President, Barack Obama, had the first meeting between the President of South Korea and the Prime Minister of Japan in the context of tensions between the two countries, Obama promising an "unconditional support" in dealing with North Korea, on Tuesday in Hague.
Obama received the South Korean President Park Geun-Hye and the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abeevening on Tuesday, at the U.S. Ambassador's residence in Hague.
This is the first meeting between the two Asians leaders since their coming to power.
"Over the last five years, close coordination between our three countries succeeded in changing the game with North Korea: our trilateral cooperation has sent a strong signal to Pyongyang that its provocations and threats will be met with a unified response," Obama said.
"The U.S. commitment to the security of Japan and South Korea is unconditional (...), and North Korea equipped with a nuclear weapon is unacceptable," he added.
"Given the increasingly uncertain developments in North Korea, the critical need for closer coordination among the three counties with regard to the North Korean nuclear issues, the chance to engage in an exchange of views with president Obama ... is very significant," Prime Minister Abe said.
In turn, the South Korean President pointed the importance of a single position of the three countries against North Korea.
"Well, the United States has found itself once again in the role of trying to be an intermediary between its two allies in northeast Asia. And this is not a new role for the United States, even though it is frustrating for the U.S. This kind of role playing by the U.S., it goes back to the Korean War; the exigencies of the war in 1950 created the need for the United States to bring Japan and South Korea together," said Lee.