Japan has not changed its assessment of the threat posed by nuclear-armed North Korea despite the June 12 U.S.-North Korea summit and ensuing denuclearization talks between the two countries, the Defense Ministry stated in its annual white paper released Tuesday.
Pyongyang has already deployed "several hundred" Rodong ballistic missiles, whose range covers almost all of Japan's territory, and Pyongyang may have already succeeded in producing nuclear warheads small enough to fit on those missiles, the ministry warned.
The June 12 meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump had "major significance", the paper noted, because Kim reconfirmed his pledge to make efforts toward denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a written statement.