Japan, South Korea Leave US Hanging At News Conference Amid Islet Dispute

Japan's vice foreign minister pulled out of a planned news conference with his South Korean and US counterparts in Washington on Wednesday over Japan and South Korea's islets territorial dispute.

Japan's vice foreign minister pulled out of a planned news conference with his South Korean and US counterparts in Washington on Wednesday over a territorial dispute between the two US allies, a Japanese Embassy spokesperson said.

US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman was left to answer questions on her own in the absence of South Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong Kun and Japanese Vice Foreign Minister Takeo Mori, with whom she had just met for three hours.

Sherman began by noting that "there are some bilateral differences between Japan and the Republic of Korea that are continuing to be resolved," but said the cancellation of the joint news conference was not related to the earlier trilateral meeting, which she called "constructive (and) substantive."

The three officials discussed freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea and their countries' commitment to advancing democratic values and human rights, and restated their commitment to maintaining an inclusive, free, peaceful, stable and open Indo-Pacific region, Sherman said.