Abe Pins High Hopes on Progress in Abduction Issue

May 11, 2018

Sapporo- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Friday he strongly hopes that a planned U.S.-North Korean summit will achieve progress toward resolving the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea decades ago.

Abe made the comments to reporters in Sapporo in the northern Japan prefecture of Hokkaido after U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that he will meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore on June 12.

"I strongly hope that the upcoming historic summit between the United States and North Korea will provide an opportunity to make progress in (North Korea's) nuclear and missile issues and, above all, in the abduction issue," Abe said.

The prime minister said Japan will join the United States in preparing for the summit while conveying its positions. "Japan is determined to do all it can," he said.

Abe also said he aims to keep in close contact with Trump.

Foreign Minister Taro Kono told a parliamentary meeting that Japan will continue to work closely with the international community to keep maximum pressure on North Korea to achieve its complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization. Jiji Press