Washington: Trump meets Abe before talks with Kim Jong-un
With five days to go for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, US President Donald Trump on Thursday met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Washington, who wants his voice heard ahead of the unprecedented talks. Japan's demands include progress on curbing the North's nuclear and ballistic missiles programs, and answers about Japanese nationals kidnapped by Pyongyang in the 1970s and 1980s.
Trump and Abe will move to Canada for G7 summit
This was Abe's second visit to Washington within two months. Since the first inkling of a Trump-Kim summit, Abe wanted to be sure to get his point to Trump, amid the intense diplomatic flurry over the future of the Korean peninsula. After holding a press conference at the White House, Trump and Abe will head to Canada to attend a G7 summit.
Trump and Abe will also discuss tariffs
During the meeting, Trump and Abe are also meant to discuss tariffs, which Washington says were put in place to protect American workers. Abe had said he will stress that measures to restrict trade would not serve the interests of any country. Japan had hoped to convince the US to shield it from fresh tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.
Hoped to 'closely coordinate' with Trump on Korea issue: Abe
Before leaving Tokyo, Abe emphasized that during his Washington visit, he hoped to "closely coordinate" with Trump on an approach to the NKorea issue. Even at Abe's last meeting with Trump in April, the latter promised to raise the politically-sensitive abductions issue in talks with Pyongyang. But the subject is hardly a priority for the businessman-turned-president, whose strategy appears to be in constant flux.
Trump first US leader to meet NKorea's ruling dynasty
Interestingly, Trump seems most enthused by the notion of being the first sitting US leader to hold direct talks with a scion of NKorea's ruling Kim dynasty. The intensifying diplomacy on NKorea has so far left Abe as the odd-man out: Trump is preparing to meet Kim, while Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korea's Moon Jae-in have already seen the North's leader twice.
'China and NKorea want to decouple Japanese, US security'
For Richard Armitage, a former senior diplomat during George W Bush regime, Tokyo runs a real risk of finding itself out in the cold after the Trump-Kim talks. "We should absolutely prevent decoupling the Japanese and US security. That would be falling into a terrible trap," he said, adding this has been an aim of China and North Korea for a long time.
