TOYAKO, Hokkaido — U.S. President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda agreed Sunday to keep pressuring North Korea on both the nuclear and abduction issues, in an apparent bid to counter criticism in Japan that Washington is abandoning Tokyo by adopting a policy of "appeasement" toward Pyongyang.
Bush told Fukuda that he will not "abandon" the Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents during the Cold War, the two leaders said at a news conference after their meeting on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit.
They agreed that the bilateral defense alliance has been greatly strengthened during the past eight years under the Bush administration and called on North Korea to accelerate the process of abandoning its nuclear programs.