Quad leaders urge N. Korea to engage in dialogue, refrain from provocations

WASHINGTON (Yonhap) -- The leaders of the United States, Australia, Japan and India on Friday called on North Korea to engage in dialogue and abide by UN Security Council resolutions that prohibit its ballistic missile tests.

The call came at the end of the first in-person summit of the four countries, which form the so-called Quad, in Washington.

"We reaffirm our commitment to the complete denuclearization of North Korea in accordance with United Nations Security Council resolutions, and also confirm the necessity of immediate resolution of the issue of Japanese abductees," the leaders said in a joint statement.

"We urge North Korea to abide by its UN obligations, refrain from provocations. We also call on North Korea to engage in substantive dialogue," they added.

The leaders are President Joe Biden of the United States, Prime Minister Scott Morrison of Australia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India and Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga of Japan.

The four held their first-ever Quad summit virtually in March and reaffirmed their "commitment to the complete denuclearization of North Korea in accordance with UN Security council resolutions."

Their latest call for dialogue comes after North Korea test-fired a new short-range ballistic missile earlier this month in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

Pyongyang has maintained a self-imposed moratorium on nuclear and long-range ballistic missile tests since late 2017.

The Biden administration has made several overtures for dialogue with Pyongyang since taking office in January, but the North remains unresponsive.