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By Rachel Dobkin
Weekend Reporter
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President Joe Biden is set to meet South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba Friday amid tensions with North Korea.
President Biden at APEC
The sideline meeting is happening during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Peru. Biden is currently on a six-day visit to Latin America for the final major international summits of his term.
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He took part in an informal meeting with other APEC leaders Friday and is also set to meet with Peru President Dina Boluarte later in the day.
Biden will follow up APEC with a gathering in Brazil of leaders from the Group of 20 top economies.
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Tensions With North Korea
Biden's meeting with Yoon and Ishiba is a follow-up on a partnership formed during a historic 2023 meeting between Biden, Yoon and former Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who Ishiba succeeded in October.
The three countries signed a pledge agreeing to consult, share information and align their messaging with each other in the face of a threat or crisis.
Biden, Yoon and Ishiba planned to discuss the recent deployment of North Korean soldiers to Russia and ensure their three countries are acting in a "coordinated way," White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.
Up to 12,000 North Korean troops have been sent to Russia—according to U.S, South Korean and Ukrainian assessments—amid its ongoing war with Ukraine, which began when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of the Eastern European country in February 2022.
Meanwhile, North Korea has also sent Russia significant amounts of munitions, according to U.S. and South Korean intelligence officials.
South Korea's spy agency said in October that North Korea provided 13,000 containers of artillery, missiles and other conventional arms to Russia since August 2023.
North Korea has previously denied sending weaponry to Russia and last month, a North Korean representative to the United Nations said reports that the East Asian country is sending soldiers to Russia were "groundless rumors."
North Korea May Seize on Donald Trump Transition
White House officials are worried that North Korea could take more provocative action ahead of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration and the early days of his second administration.
"I do not think we can count on a period of quiet with the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea]," said Sullivan, using North Korea's formal name. "The possibility of a seventh nuclear test remains ever present and something we're vigilant for."
He added: "The transitions have historically been time periods when the DPRK has taken provocative actions both before and after the transition from one president to a new president."
North Korea launched a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles into the sea mere hours before the U.S.'s November 5 election, according to Japanese and South Korean officials.
Those missile launches came days after North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong Un supervised a flight test of the country's newest intercontinental ballistic missile, demonstrating a potential advancement in its ability to launch long-range nuclear attack on the U.S. mainland.
In response to the flight test, the U.S. flew a long-range B-1B bomber in a drill with South Korea and Japan on Sunday. The trilateral drill demonstrated the three countries' firm resolve and readiness to respond to North Korea's advancing nuclear and missile program, according to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
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