Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday signaled that Japan would likely help shoulder the costs of North Korea's denuclearization under a potential international funding framework aimed at eliminating Pyongyang's nuclear weapons and missile programs.

"As we stand to benefit from denuclearization, we must think about such matters," Abe said on a Yomiuri Telecasting Corp. program, in the wake of the first-ever U.S.-North Korea summit earlier in the week that ended with an affirmation of Pyongyang's commitment to the denuclearization process.

Amid mixed views on the outcome of the meeting in Singapore between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the international community is now looking at the specifics of how their agreement would actually rid North Korea of its nuclear weapons.