Onodera Calls for Keeping Pressure until N. Korea Denuclearized

June 2, 2018

Singapore- Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera on Saturday underlined the need to keep maximum pressure on North Korea until Pyongyang completely scraps all of its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles.

"It is indispensable to maintain maximum pressure on North Korea until Pyongyang realizes its complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization (CVID)," Onodera told the three-day annual Asia Security Summit, known as the Shangri-La Dialogue, from Friday.

Onodera also highlighted the importance of cooperation to continue multilateral surveillance activities aimed at blocking ship-to-ship smuggling at sea.

Noting that North Korea continued its nuclear development in the past despite its pledges to abandon the program, Onodera said that no reward should be given to North Korea only for its agreement to have dialogue.

"Taking concrete actions to realize CVID is the only way to bring peace to the Korean Peninsula," Onodera said.

He also said Japan will spare no efforts in providing support in fields in which it has expertise if North Korea moves to take concrete actions toward denuclearization, suggesting his intention to send Self-Defense Forces personnel to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Also in the speech, Onodera pinned hopes on a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

About a week after announcing the cancellation of the summit, Trump said Friday that he will hold talks with Kim on June 12 in Singapore as initially planned.

"Japan strongly hopes that the summit will lead to progress toward CVID and become an opportunity to resolve the issue of abductions of Japanese nationals by North Korea," Onodera said.

On Friday, Trump also said he no longer wants to use the term, "maximum pressure." Regarding this, Onodera said the president has made it clear that the United States will not lift its sanctions on North Korea unless Pyongyang agrees to realize its denuclearization.

Maintaining the maximum pressure campaign will contribute to solving the North Korean problems, Onodera stated. Jiji Press