US-Japan-ROK Nuclear Dialogue Track 2 Statement (2012)

In 2010, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) Center for the Promotion of Disarmament and Non-Proliferation (CPDNP), and the Asan Institute for Policy Studies joined to form a Track 2 nuclear dialogue between the United States (US), Japan, and the Republic of Korea (ROK). After its first set of meetings, the group issued a statement in May 2011 entitled “Towards a Common Trilateral Approach” which explores the ways in which US-Japan-ROK trilateralism might allow the three countries to strengthen nonproliferation efforts and help create the conditions for a world without nuclear weapons, including countering the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) nuclear program as well as China’s increasing assertiveness.

This statement is the result of the second set of in-depth, off-the-record discussions among the group—16-17 June 2011 in Seoul, 20-21 September 2011 in Tokyo, and 8-9 December 2011 in Washington—and attempts to focus on three tangible areas of trilateral cooperation: the 2012 Nuclear Security Summit, denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, and extended deterrence, assurance, and regional security.