Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks during a joint press conference with U.S. President Donald Trump (not pictured) at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., April 18, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Saturday he welcomed North Korea’s statement that it was suspending all nuclear and missile tests as “forward motion” but that this must lead to verifiable denuclearisation.

“This announcement is forward motion that I’d like to welcome,” Abe told reporters.

“But what’s important is that this leads to complete, verifiable denuclearisation. I want to emphasize this.”

Japan has advocated a policy of maximum pressure on North Korea to get the reclusive state to abandon its weapons program. </s> "This is a step forward. I welcome it," Abe was cited as saying by the Kyodo news agency after the North announced the decision was effective immediately.

The prime minister added that the end goal remained a "complete, verifiable and irreversible" dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear, ballistic weapons and weapons of mass destruction.

Japan’s Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera however, lambasted the promise as "meaningless" for Japan unless the North halted its short- and medium-range missiles. "I am not satisfied at all," he was quoted as saying by the Nikkei newspaper.

Onodera said it was not the time to ease international pressure on North Korea, which he said must give up all nuclear weapons. Japan would keep maximum pressure on the reclusive state until it fully complied, he added.

Meanwhile, the office of South Korea’s president has praised as meaningful the promise made by the North to halt tests.

"North Korea's decision is meaningful progress for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, which the world wishes for," the statement cited by the Yonhap news agency read.

North Korea said it halted nuclear and missile tests to focus on economic growth, according to the state KCNA news agency. It will hold on to its nuclear arsenal to be able to respond to any nuclear threat or provocation, it added. </s> Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday cautiously welcomed North Korea's pledge to halt nuclear tests and intercontinental missile launches but its defence minister warned Tokyo will continue to put maximum pressure on Pyongyang.

"We welcome it as a forward-looking move... but an important thing is whether the move will lead to the complete abandonment of missile and nuclear developments in a verifiable and irreversible manner," Abe told reporters.

"We want to watch it closely."

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un pledged Saturday his country would halt nuclear tests and intercontinental missile launches, a move welcomed by US President Donald Trump and South Korea.

But Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera said earlier that Japan "can't be satisfied", because Pyongyang did not mention giving up short- and medium-range ballistic missiles.

Onodera said Tokyo would persist with its policy of putting pressure on Pyongyang so that it ultimately gives up its "weapons of mass destruction, nuclear arms and missiles".

Japan, a close US ally in the region, is in the direct firing line of North Korean missiles and saw two fly over its territory in 2017, sparking outrage and raising tensions to fever pitch.

"(North Korea) has made a lot of promises and we paid money on the condition that they will give up experiment sites, but they continued," Aso told reporters in Washington, referring to Pyongyang's nuclear programme.

The North's declaration, long sought by Washington, comes less than a week before Kim meets South Korean President Moon Jae-in for a summit, ahead of a much-anticipated encounter with Trump himself.

Earlier this week, Abe held talks with Trump in Florida and displayed a united front on North Korea, including on the issue of Japanese abductees taken to North Korea, a major domestic issue. </s> Japan on Tuesday emphasised the need for North Korea to take ‘concrete actions’ in regard with denuclearization.

In the purview of the expected visit of US President Donald Trump to North Korea in May, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called upon North Korea to convert words into actions in regard to denuclearisation of the latter, as reported by the Yonhap news agency.

Abe made the remarks during his meeting with South Korean National Intelligence Service chief Suh Hoon, who was visiting Tokyo to brief him on the outcome of his recent trips to Pyongyang and Washington.

He further highlighted the issue of abducted Japanese nationals in the territory of North Korea and called for its resolution.

“It is our basic stance that the nuclear and missile problems and the kidnapping issue of Japanese people should be resolved. It is important to implement words through action and for the North to take concrete action”, Yonhap quotes Abe as saying.

The Japanese Prime Minister, however, seemed optimist about North Korea to cooperate in the process of denuclearization.

“I do not believe North Korea would use this chance simply to buy more time because it now has to face important negotiations, such as a North Korea-U.S. summit following a South-North Korea summit,” Abe told Suh, according to South Korea’s presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.

Abe was also quoted as saying that Japan is ready to provide all necessary support and cooperation in making the planned back-to-back summits a success.

The spy agency chief Hoon arrived in Japan on Monday and held a meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono.

His visit is part of Seoul’s efforts to rally support for the recent breakthroughs in bringing the North to talks and to get other key stakeholders including China, Russia and Japan on board.

Both North and South Korea have established a dialogue among them regarding the denuclearisation of North Korea after being persisted by Japan and United States.

South Korea had earlier sent a team of envoys to North Korea to discuss regarding denuclearisation. Post which the North Korean leader agreed to hold a summit with President Moon Jae-in in April and further expressed willingness to hold denuclearisation talks with the United States.

On the similar lines, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would be meeting the USpresident Donald Trump in April to pressurise North Korea to abandon its nuclear program. </s> Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is reportedly considering holding a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, despite earlier reservations about dialog with Pyongyang.

 Japanese local media cited an unnamed government source as saying on Wednesday that Tokyo was considering seeking a summit between Abe and Kim.

 The development came almost a week after US President Donald Trump announced he had accepted an invitation by Pyongyang to sit down with Kim without any preconditions. One of the South Korean official who had earlier met with Kim and who had delivered the invitation to Trump in Washington also met with Abe in Tokyo.

 Tokyo is said to be considering using a future meeting to discuss the fate of citizens that it alleges were abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, according to the local media.

 Abe has previously told Seoul that Japan wanted any demilitarization talks with Pyongyang to address the issue of the alleged abductions.

 “A resolution of the abduction, nuclear, and missile issues is Japan’s core policy,” the prime minister said earlier. “North Korea must match its words with actions.”

 Japan seemed to have early reservations about talks with North Korea. Shortly after Trump’s announcement, Abe said Tokyo would continue “utmost pressure” on Pyongyang to bring about denuclearization.

 This is while China and Russia both welcomed the potential meeting between Trump and Kim. Analysts attributed Tokyo’s cold response to fears that if Pyongyang “sits down with Washington, it will have absolutely no interest whatsoever in sitting down with Japan.—Agencies </s> Japan's prime minister warned Thursday that North Korea's offer of denuclearisation talks with the United States could be a ploy to play for time and stressed the need for Pyongyang to take "concrete" steps.

In his first public comments since an apparent diplomatic breakthrough between North and South Korea, Shinzo Abe said that talking for the sake of talking was "meaningless."

"I've repeatedly said that we have to create a situation of putting maximum pressure on North Korea so that the North wants to have talks with us," Abe told MPs.

"However... it is true that the North has in the past earned time to develop nuclear capabilities and missiles" during periods of negotiation, Abe cautioned.

"Talks for the sake of talks are meaningless and we should never loosen sanctions just because North Korea is open to talks," added the hawkish prime minister.

In the latest chapter of a rapid Olympics-driven rapprochement on the Korean peninsula, Pyongyang has said it would consider giving up its nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees.

However, analysts have warned that any path to a US-North Korea deal over nuclear weapons is fraught with danger and uncertainty.

Japan, a close US ally in the region, is in the direct firing line of North Korean missiles and saw two fly over its territory in 2017, sparking outrage and lifting tensions to fever pitch.

Despite the apparent recent detente, Abe said Japan's position was unchanged: "North Korea has to show concrete actions toward denuclearisation by committing to abandon its nuclear programme via complete, verifiable and irreversible means."

Abe said he was looking forward to a briefing from a South Korean envoy about his talks with the North when he visits Japan next week. </s> Prime Minister Shinzo Abe warned Thursday that North Korea’s offer of denuclearization talks with the United States could be a ploy to play for time, and stressed the need for Pyongyang to take “concrete” steps.

In his first public comments since an apparent diplomatic breakthrough between North and South Korea, Abe said that talking for the sake of talking was “meaningless.”

“I’ve repeatedly said that we have to create a situation of putting maximum pressure on North Korea so that the North wants to have talks with us,” Abe told members of the Diet.

“However … it is true that the North has in the past earned time to develop nuclear capabilities and missiles” during periods of negotiation, Abe cautioned.

“Talks for the sake of talks are meaningless and we should never loosen sanctions just because North Korea is open to talks,” he added.

In the latest chapter of a rapid, Olympics-driven rapprochement on the Korean peninsula, Pyongyang has said it would consider giving up its nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees.

However, analysts have warned that any path to a U.S.-North Korea deal over nuclear weapons is fraught with danger and uncertainty.

Japan, a close U.S. ally in the region, is in the direct firing line of North Korean missiles and saw two fly over its territory in 2017, sparking outrage and lifting tensions to fever pitch.

Despite the apparent recent detente, Abe said Japan’s position was unchanged: “North Korea has to show concrete actions toward denuclearization by committing to abandon its nuclear program via complete, verifiable and irreversible means.”

Abe said he was looking forward to a briefing from a South Korean envoy about his talks with the North when the envoy visits Japan next week. </s> Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has announced an early election to capitalize on rising public support for his hard-line stance against the North Korean nuclear and missile threat.

The prime minister Monday dissolved the lower house of the Japanese parliament known as the Diet, and called what is known as a snap election for October 22, more than a year before the next election is scheduled to take place.

At a press conference to announce his decision, Abe said engaging in a snap election campaign would not distract his government from responding to North Korean threats, and he pledged to increase pressure if Pyongyang fails to halt its provocations.

Calling an early election is an often-used political tactic in a parliamentary system to try to gain more seats in the legislature, or extend the ruling coalition’s term of office, when public support for the leadership is high. If Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party maintains its majority in the Diet, he could serve as prime minister until 2021.

Abe is seeking to take advantage of his close to 50 percent approval rating in recent public opinion polls. Just a few months ago his rating dropped to near 30 percent due to domestic scandals alleging he used his office to help friends and family profit, charges that he denied.

But in the face of North Korea’s continued threatening behavior, the Japanese public has increasingly coalesced in favor of the conservative prime minister’s strong defensive posture.

On two recent occasions Pyongyang fired missiles over the northern island of Hokkaido and has threatened to "sink" Japan into the sea.

On Friday, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho said his country is considering testing a hydrogen bomb test in the Pacific Ocean. Analysts say such a test would likely be a nuclear tipped missile launch that would also fly over Japanese airspace.

Abe has closely aligned with U.S. President Donald Trump’s maximum pressure policy to use crippling sanctions and the threat of military action to force the Kim Jong Un government to give up its nuclear program.

The Abe administration has also advocated for bolstering Japan’s missile strike capability, and has proposed a $48 billion budget to upgrade missile defense systems, including purchasing U.S. land-based Aegis Ashore interceptors or the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD), the same anti-missile system the U.S. recently deployed in South Korea.

If Japan seeks to acquire THAAD it could risk angering China, which strongly objects to locating this system in the region, as its powerful radar can potentially monitor Chinese military installations. Beijing has retaliated against Seoul for THADD by reducing imports and tourists, and could also try to punish Tokyo in a similar fashion.

Growing Japanese support for strong defensive measures could also help Abe achieve his long held goal to end constraints imposed on the military by the country’s post World War II pacifist constitution.

To change the constitution that prohibits Japan from going to war to settle international disputes requires the approval of a two-thirds majority in parliament, and the support of a majority of voters in a national referendum.

The Japanese public has been divided over Abe’s proposal to allow the military more latitude to counter potential threats from countries like North Korea and China that are increasing their military and nuclear capabilities. The U.S. supports Japan taking a more prominent role in maintaining regional security.

Supporters of the pacifist constitution argue that loosening restrictions on the use of force will entangle Japan in international conflicts, most likely in support of its U.S. military ally. President Trump’s recent threat to totally destroy North Korea if attacked, and the escalating war of words between the leaders of the U.S. and North Korea, have heightened these concerns for many.

“Quite a few people also regard that as more of courting danger to Japan, and putting them in harms way, rather than protecting Japan,” said Koichi Nakano, a political science professor with Sophia University in Tokyo.

China and other countries in Asia that suffered under Japanese occupation during World War II also object to any change to the country’s pacifist constitution.

A Nikkei business daily survey showed 44 percent of voters plan to vote for Abe's Liberal Democratic Party versus 8 percent for the main opposition Democratic Party.

However recent elections around the world have surprised pollsters with unexpected results.

While the opposition in Japan currently seems divided and weak, Abe’s critics say he runs the risk of alienating voters by playing politics at time when the country faces a serious security threat.

“Some people are really sort of cynical about the fact that Mr. Abe has been basically calling the nation to duck and cover while North Korea launches a missile, and now calls a snap election presumably because it’s okay to conduct a political campaign even when North Korea is flying missiles,” said Nakano.

A poll by the Kyodo news agency found that almost two-thirds of Japanese voters are opposed to Abe holding a snap election, and that 42 percent of the electorate is undecided about whom to support. </s> TOKYO (Reuters) - An agreement between North and South Korea to hold a summit and signals about possible talks between North Korea and the United States are stirring concern in Japan about its diplomatic nightmare - being left out in the cold.

Signs of easing tension over North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, greeted in Tokyo with scepticism, come as Japan faces a possible trade feud with the United States over steel and rocky ties with South Korea over their bitter history, including Japan’s 1910-1945 colonisation of the peninsula.

“The main concern is that South Korea may have jumped too easily to a proposal by North Korea for a bilateral meeting,” said a former senior Japanese diplomat who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the topic.

A South Korean delegation returned home on Tuesday from a first-ever meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, to announce the agreement on a North-South summit next month, the first since 2007.

The South Koreans also announced that Kim had offered to hold talks with the United States on denuclearisation and to halt nuclear and missile tests while negotiating. North Korea’s recent missile tests have included two fired over Japan.

U.S. President Donald Trump said North Korea seemed “sincere”.

The former diplomat said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe faced uncertain times.

“As for Washington, Trump is such an unpredictable guy. If anything will help elevate his approval domestically, he’ll jump,” he said.

“If North Korea sits down with Washington, it will have absolutely no interest whatsoever in sitting down with Japan. That will make Abe’s position very difficult.”

Japan has maintained its call for “maximum pressure” on North Korea amid signs of easing tension that began during the Winter Olympics in South Korea last month, warning that “talks for the sake of talks” were unacceptable.

Abe has stressed that Washington shares that stance.

“In order for there to be meaningful talks with North Korea, it must commit to compete, verifiable and irreversible abandonment of its nuclear and missile programmes and take concrete steps toward denuclearisation,” Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters on Wednesday.

“Our country will continue cooperation with the United States, and among the United States, Japan and South Korea, and there is no change in our stance of putting maximum pressure by all means to get North Korea to change its policies,” he added.

Abe has called the North Korean crisis the toughest security crisis faced by Japan since World War Two and his stern stance has generally won him support at home.

Despite the long-standing security alliance between the United States and Japan, worries that the United States may cut a deal to protect its cities from nuclear attack by the North, while leaving Japan vulnerable, have simmered.

“Japan’s eternal fear is that it will be cut out of negotiations over the state of relations with North Korea,” said Brad Glosserman, a visiting professor at Tama University.

“The concern is that Trump is prepared to cut a deal and show the world that the ‘special relationship between Shinzo and Donald’, and America and Japan, is empty and that he will rip it up in a heartbeat,” Glosserman said.

Katsuyuki Kawai, an adviser to Abe, is in Washington this week seeking, he told Reuters before departure, to reinforce the alliance and talk up the need for trilateral coordination among the United States, Japan and South Korea.

“Japan is not an observer, Japan is one of the important actors,” Kawai said.

However, ties between Japan and America’s other key Asian ally, South Korea, have been frayed since President Moon Jae-in took office last May and cast doubts over a 2015 agreement meant to lay to rest a feud over “comfort women”, a euphemism for women forced to work in Japanese wartime military brothels.

Both sides have said that dispute should not snarl coordination over North Korea, but the chill is real and any sign Trump was favouring South Korea’s softer approach could fan Japan’s angst.

“If America goes with talks, it aligns more closely to South Korea than Japan at a time when relations with South Korea are rocky,” Glosserman said.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe praises North Korea's statement that it would suspend nuclear and missile tests, but he also states the results must lead to verifiable denuclearization.