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View all search resultsASEAN should press its Plus Three partners on denuclearization
With East Asia on the brink of a dangerous nuclear tipping point, ASEAN must abandon quiet diplomacy and force frank answers from Beijing, Tokyo, and Seoul at next month’s summit.
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People watch a television screen showing a news broadcast with file footage of a North Korean missile test, at a train station in Seoul on April 19, 2026. (AFP/Jung Yeon-je)
W
hen ASEAN leaders meet their ASEAN Plus Three partners, China, Japan and South Korea, in Manila next month, they should seize the opportunity to hear firsthand where each nation stands on the accelerating nuclear weaponization of the Korean Peninsula.
As Northeast Asia's closest neighbor, both strategically and geographically, ASEAN holds a direct stake in regional nonproliferation. Amid intensifying global volatility, this dialogue must delve far deeper than previous diplomatic exchanges.
During their Nov. 16-18 summit sessions with Chinese President Xi Jinping (or Premier Li Qiang), Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, ASEAN leaders have three compelling reasons to raise this sensitive issue candidly: North Korea’s advancing nuclear capabilities; the shifting defense postures of South Korea and Japan; and China’s unique leverage as Pyongyang’s principal ally.
As a former Army general, and the president of ASEAN’s natural leader, Prabowo Subianto should possess both a clear strategic vision and a comprehensive grasp of the peninsula’s security dynamics. Several months ago, he dispatched his then-foreign minister, Sugiono, to Pyongyang to assess prospects for a presidential visit, drawing on Jakarta’s decades-long diplomatic ties with North Korea.
First of all, ASEAN must confront Pyongyang’s aggressive posture head-on. Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean paramount leader Kim Jong Un, previously denounced as “stupid” and “foolish” the joint call by ASEAN foreign ministers to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula following the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Manila in July. Russia reportedly defended North Korea’s nuclear arsenal during that forum.
Quoted by state media, the younger Kim declared: “We resolutely condemn and reject, in the strongest terms, the openly hostile attitude of ignoring the constitution of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and joining the United States in its calls for denuclearization.”
ASEAN rightly refused to be baited into a war of words, just as the Group of Seven (G7) withheld comment after facing similar invective. Pyongyang’s rhetoric is a deliberate attempt to cow the international community into silence and normalize its nuclear status.
