The foreign ministers of the United States, Japan and South Korea — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Japanese Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara and South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Kim Sung Hwan — demonstrated their solidarity in dealing with North Korea when they met in Washington on Dec. 6.
On Nov. 23, North Korea shelled South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island, killing four South Koreans. It is also enriching uranium in addition to its program to make plutonium-type nuclear weapons. In a joint statement, the three foreign ministers "strongly condemned" North Korea's attack and said that the North's "provocative and belligerent behavior threatens all three countries and will be met with solidarity from all three countries."
On China's proposal for holding urgent six-party talks, involving the U.S., China, Japan, Russia and North and South Koreas, to discuss the North's Nov. 23 attack, the three foreign ministers agreed that the North should first demonstrate its willingness to stop provocative action. They also said that resumption of six-party talks on the North's denuclearization "will require the (North) to make sincere efforts to improve relations with the (South) as well as taking concrete steps to demonstrate a genuine commitment to complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization."