Japan and the United States agreed Wednesday to closely cooperate on pushing North Korea to address the nuclear, missile and abduction issues as U.S. President Donald Trump prepares to meet with the North's leader Kim Jong Un next month.
Meeting in Washington, Foreign Minister Taro Kono and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo affirmed the two allies will keep pressing North Korea to dismantle all weapons of mass destruction and missiles — including short- and medium-range missiles capable of hitting Japan — in a complete, verifiable and irreversible way, a Japanese official said.
Kono and Pompeo underscored the nations' coordination in working for a resolution of Pyongyang's abductions of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s, an issue Trump has promised to take up in the first-ever U.S.-North Korea summit, which is slated for June 12 in Singapore.