Japan reacts calmly to planned US-N. Korea talks

February 22, 2018

Tokyo- The Japanese government has reacted calmly to a US announcement on a planned but cancelled meeting between Vice President Mike Pence and Kim Yo Jong, the younger sister of North Korean leader of Kim Jong Un, and other officials of the reclusive country.

The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which has kept touting the necessity of putting maximum pressure on North Korea until Pyongyang comes to seek talks on its denuclearization and other issues, was not upset by the meeting plan because the government believed Pence would use the opportunity to demonstrate the White House's tough stance, informed sources said.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga declined to comment on whether the Japanese government knew about the planned meeting in South Korea between Pence and Kim in advance.

Suga said that Abe and Pence, who visited Japan before traveling to South Korea, spent enough time to discuss how to deal with the North Korean delegation to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

Shinsuke Sugiyama, new Japanese ambassador to the United States, said in a speech in Tokyo Wednesdays that Tokyo and Washington have no difference on the position that they will not hold dialogue for the sake of dialogue with the North.

The US government said that the meeting was an opportunity to let North Korea understand the need to abandon its nuclear and missile development programs. The meeting was canceled by North Korea. Jiji Press