Japan to Keep Demanding N. Korean Action to Denuke Self

May 22, 2018

Buenos Aires- Japan will keep demanding North Korea's concrete moves to denuclearize itself, including signing and ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, Foreign Minister Tano Kono said Monday.

Complete and verifiable denuclearization is indispensable, the Japanese foreign minister said in a final-day session of the two-day meeting of the Group of 20 foreign ministers in Buenos Aires.

Discussing issues related to sustainable development with his peers at a luncheon in the Argentine capital the same day, Kono said high-quality infrastructure development promoted by Japan should be established as an international standard.

To tackle humanitarian crises, such as poverty and refugee problems, Kono proposed using revenues from international solidarity taxes.

At a joint press conference held after the ministerial meeting with Kono and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie, who chaired the meeting, said that participants "agreed that it is best to have and to maintain multilateralism" at a time when the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is pushing ahead with protectionist trade policies.

The next G-20 foreign ministers meeting will be held in the central Japan city of Nagoya on Nov. 22-23, 2019, Kono, the meeting's chair, disclosed.

He told reporters later that it is necessary to consider ways to allow participating ministers to have in-depth discussions at the next gathering.

There are too many members to talk closely with each other, he noted. Jiji Press