Donald Trump and Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe have discussed the latest developments on North Korea during the phone call on Monday, Nikkei reported.
In the wake of North Korea’s firing of a series of projectiles into the sea from an area around the Hodo Peninsula, the US President and Japanese PM have shared the available information on this important issue. Mr Abe was an initiator of the phone conversation, earlier, he has recently said he will meet with North Korean leader unconditionally.
Pyongyamg is prohibited from conducting ballistic missile launches under UN Security Council resolutions and no such tests by the country have been confirmed since November 2017. After Saturday tests between 9:06 a.m. and 9:27 AM, the South Korea’s Defense Ministry has said the projectiles included a new tactical guided weapon. However, the military experts from the US and South Korea believe them to be short-range ballistic missiles.
North Korea’s state-run agency has reported on Sunday that Kim Jong Un inspected a number of large-caliber long-range rocket launchers during a “strike drill” conducted the previous day by the military.
The projectiles launches follow a lack of substantive progress on the denuclearization of North Korea despite two high-profile summits between the US President Trump and North Korean chairman.
PM abe said he is going to meet Mr Kim unconditionally, and such a shift in the position of the prime minister is obvious. earlier, Japanese PM said he would talk with Kim only when progress was made on the long-standing issue of Japanese nationals abducted by Pyongyang in the 1970s and 1980s, which has prevented Japan and North Korea from normalizing relations.
