US urges S. Korea to join Quad, Japanese newspaper reports

A Blue House official denied the report, calling it \"regrettable\" and \"not true\"

South Korean National Security Advisor Suh Hoon, right, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, center, and Japanese National Security Secretariat Secretary General Shigeru Kitamura walk together during their meeting on April 2 at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. (provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

An American official pushed the South Koreans to join the Quad during a recent meeting, a Japanese newspaper reported Sunday.

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan made the comments during a meeting with the top national security officials from South Korea and Japan on April 2. The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, consisting of the US, Japan, India, and Australia, has been set up to contain China.

An official from the Blue House flatly denied the report, describing it as "regrettable" and "not true."

"Blue House National Security Director Suh Hoon told Sullivan that the South Koreans are basically in agreement but asked him to understand their position," the Yomiuri Shimbun said, quoting a source in the deliberations.

South Korea has remained opposed to regional bodies designed to exclude or counter any specific country. Suh expressed his hesitation about South Korea taking partial responsibility for encircling China, the newspaper reported.

After the trilateral meeting, the White House released a press statement in which it said that "the national security advisors [… discussed] issues of common concern including Indo Pacific security."

The White House only mentioned China indirectly, without explicitly stating that China had been discussed. If the Yomiuri Shimbun article is accurate, the US directly asked South Korea to take part in "Quad Plus" during the meeting.

But a Blue House official contested that account Sunday. "The content of the article fails to reflect what was discussed at the time. The quotations in the article are very inaccurate."

"Both in our trilateral meeting with the US and Japan and in our bilateral meeting with the US, there were productive deliberations about all aspects of North Korea policy and matters for regional cooperation. I'm told that we weren't asked to take part in the Quad."

The Yomiuri Shimbun also reported that the consultation underscored a disagreement about North Korea policy between the Biden administration in the US and the Moon administration in South Korea. The newspaper said that Suh had called for a quick resumption of North Korea-US talks but that Sullivan had said the US wouldn't recklessly jump into dialogue as the Trump administration did.

The newspaper also reported that Suh didn't agree with the US taking issue with North Korea's human rights infringements, which he said was an obstacle to inter-Korean dialogue.

"The Americans didn't reject dialogue with North Korea, and North Korean human rights didn't come up in the deliberations," a Blue House official responded.

By Kim So-youn, staff writer

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