Japan, UK leaders agree to increase pressure on N. Korea

September 1, 2017

TOKYO- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his British counterpart, Theresa May, on Thursday agreed to further increase pressure on North Korea, which is accelerating nuclear and missile development, and urge China to play its role in sorting out the North Korean problem.

"Today, the world faces an unprecedented threat from North Korea's nuclear and missile program," the two leaders said in a joint declaration on security cooperation, announced at a joint news conference after their meeting in Tokyo, referring to escalating provocations by the reclusive country.

Japan and Britain "stand shoulder to shoulder in opposing North Korea's destabilizing and dangerous policies and provocations," the document said, adding, "We will continue to work together with our friends and allies toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the strict and full implementation of UN Security Council resolutions" on sanctions against Pyongyang.

On Tuesday, North Korea fired a ballistic missile, which fell into the Pacific Ocean after passing over Japan's northernmost prefecture of Hokkaido. In early August, Pyongyang announced a plan to launch multiple ballistic missiles into waters near the US Pacific territory of Guam.

At the news conference with May, Abe said, "We've achieved major progress as we agreed on close Japan-Britain cooperation" for the adoption of a new Security Council sanctions resolution including a ban on oil exports to North Korea.

May said that they agreed to "work together...to strengthen pressure against North Korea, including by increasing the pace of sanctions implementation and working toward the adoption of a new and effective resolution" at the UN Security Council.

In a separate document, Abe and May said that the latest missile launch by North Korea was "an outrageous provocation and posed an unprecedented, serious and grave threat to Japan's national security," condemning the country "in the strongest terms possible for this reckless act, which was a clear violation" of past Security Council resolutions. Jiji Press