President Joe Biden met with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol to discuss a joint response following China and North Korea’s latest moves in the region. These meetings come a day before the scheduled meeting between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Bali.
The President made a point to emphasize the union between the three countries: "We face real challenges, but our countries are more aligned than ever." As reported by Newsmax, in the meetings, the two Asian leaders expressed concern over North Korea's aggressive missile launches, some of which have caused serious alarm in both countries.
North Korea ignored U.S. negotiation offers
The Biden Administration informed the Japanese and South Korean leaders that the U.S. has sent several proposals to sit down and negotiate with Kim Jong-Un. In an attempt to gain the dictator's attention, no preconditions regarding North Korea's nuclear program or its ballistic missile arsenal were included. However, they received no response.
Therefore, Biden announced that he will press Xi for China to be the one to try to control North Korean aggressiveness during the bilateral meeting between the two leaders in Bali. It will be the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since Biden became President of the United States. It will also be the first talk between the two after the diplomatic crisis sparked by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan.
"I know I’m coming in stronger”
Biden emphasized that both come to the meeting stronger than ever. In his case, "I know I'm coming in stronger," following the Democratic Party's results in the midterms, especially after it was confirmed that they will maintain control of the Senate. Meanwhile, Xi has become the Chinese leader with the most power since Mao following the Chinese Communist Party Congress.
"I know him well, he knows me well. We’ve just got to figure out where the red lines are and what are the most important things to each of us, going into the next two years," the president affirmed.
