Abe, Pence agree to keep maximum pressure on N. Korea

February 8, 2018

Tokyo- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US Vice President Mike Pence, at a meeting in Tokyo on Wednesday, reconfirmed their countries' stances of continuing to apply maximum pressure on North Korea to make the reclusive state abandon its nuclear and missile development programs.

The Abe-Pence meeting took place ahead of their separate talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, whose reconciliatory attitude toward Pyongyang has stood out recently as the North is slated to participate in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in the South.

Abe and Pence are set to meet with Moon when they visit South Korea to attend the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Games on Friday. They are expected to urge South Korea to remain alert for moves by North Korea.

"We agreed to call on related countries not to be blinded by North Korea's 'smile diplomacy,'" Abe told a joint press conference with Pence after the Tokyo meeting. "I hope to show that the solid cooperation among Japan, the United States and South Korea is unwavering," through the upcoming summit with Moon, Abe stressed.

Pence said, "We will not allow North Korea to hide behind the Olympic banner the reality that they enslave their people and threaten the wider region." He also said the United States will soon unveil the toughest and most aggressive sanctions ever against North Korea.

During their meeting, Abe and Pence reconfirmed the need to fully implement UN Security Council sanctions resolutions against North Korea and shared the view that any dialogue is meaningless unless North Korea takes specific action toward its denuclearization.

They also agreed on the significance of US-South Korea military drills, which the two countries have decided not to conduct during the Pyeongchang Olympics and Paralympics.

"All options are on the table," Pence said at the press conference, adding: "The United States has deployed some of our most advanced military assets to Japan and the wider region to protect our homeland and our allies. And we will continue to."

Following a spate of emergency landings and other incidents involving US military aircraft in the southernmost Japan prefecture of Okinawa, which hosts many US military facilities, Abe and Pence agreed that it is important to operate such aircraft safely.

They also reconfirmed the need to promote the realignment of US forces in Japan, including the relocation of the US Marine Corps' Futenma air base from its current site in Ginowan, Okinawa, to the Henoko coastal area of Nago, another Okinawa city.

They also agr

eed to promptly draw up details for bilateral cooperation under the two countries' free and open Indo-Pacific strategy while sharing concerns over the situations in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, where China is increasingly assertive.

Abe and Pence reconfirmed that the Senkaku Islands in Okinawa are covered by Article 5 of the Japan-US security treaty, which stipulates the United States' obligations to defend territories under Japanese jurisdiction. The East China Sea islands are claimed by China, which calls them Diaoyu. Jiji Press