When Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attends the Nuclear Security Summit in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, North Korea's nuclear weapons program is expected to be high on the list of topics that leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama and South Korean President Park Geun-hye, will discuss.

Obama plans to hold a trilateral summit with Abe and Park on Thursday morning, and later in the day he is scheduled to have a one-on-one meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Also on the agenda will be Japan's own nuclear problems, especially proliferation concerns if and when Aomori Prefecture's Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant for spent nuclear fuel goes into operation. The summit is aimed at preventing nuclear materials and technologies from falling into the hands of rogue states and terrorist groups.