Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg agreed Tuesday that strong international pressure is needed to force North Korea to halt its nuclear and missile ambitions, which they called a global threat.
Stoltenberg, NATO's secretary-general, called for the "complete denuclearization" of the Korean Peninsula, saying that the ratcheting up of pressure on Pyongyang is aimed at resolving the crisis in a "peaceful" manner.
"I shared the view with Secretary-General Stoltenberg that at this moment, it is necessary to raise pressure to the maximum, rather than to enter dialogue, to force North Korea to abandon all its nuclear and missile programs," Abe said at a joint news conference after talks with Stoltenberg in Tokyo.