The leaders of the United States, India, Japan and Australia are expected to discuss North Korea’s security challenge and its cooperation with Russia among other topics during their Quad summit set to take place in Delaware this week, a White House official said Thursday.

Mira Rapp-Hooper, the senior director for East Asia and Oceania at the National Security Council, made the remarks ahead of the summit in Wilmington on Saturday, as Pyongyang has been ratcheting up tensions with its rare disclosure of a uranium enrichment facility and continued weapons tests.

The official highlighted that Washington and its allies and partners are paying attention to the North’s evolving nuclear program with the “utmost urgency.”

“I do expect the leaders will discuss it, as they usually do, and this year, I would, of course, expect them to be exchanging views and talking about what they can do to counter growing DPRK-Russia cooperation, which, of course, poses a real threat not only to Europe but also to the Indo-Pacific
,” she said during a press briefing at the Foreign Press Center.

Mira Rapp-Hooper, the senior director for East Asia and Oceania at the White House National Security Council, speaks during a press conference at the Foreign Press Center in Washington on Sept. 19, 2024. (Yonhap)

DPRK stands for the North’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

Asked if the North’s recent disclosure of the nuclear facility calls for greater policy attention to the regime’s security challenge, Rapp-Hooper reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to addressing the issue.

“I can assure you that the U.S. government and all of our like-minded partners, especially the ROK and Japan, are treating North Korea’s nuclear program, its missile capabilities and its conventional capabilities with the utmost urgency,” she said, referring to South Korea by its official name, the Republic of Korea.

“We have redoubled our cooperation on all of these issues to make sure that we are in lockstep and prepared for any type of provocation
that the DPRK may wish to make,” she added.

The official underscored the importance of the trilateral security partnership between South Korea, the U.S. and Japan in tackling the North Korean quandary.

“One of the other signature partnerships you have seen grow over the course of the Biden administration is of course the US-ROK-Japan trilateral partnership,” she said.

“Strengthening our extended deterrence, our cooperation, our intelligence-sharing, our policy alignment against the DPRK in the face of its increased provocations is front and center to that trilateral relationship,” she added.

President Joe Biden, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese are set to attend the summit to discuss a wide range of issues to advance their shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific, the White House has said.

The next Quad Summit will be hosted by India.

Source: Yonhap News Agency