Abe Hails N. Korea Decision to Stop Nuke, ICBM Testing

Tokyo, April 21 (Jiji Press)--Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday praised North Korea's decisions to stop nuclear testing and test-firing of intercontinental ballistic missiles, and abolish its nuclear test site in the northern part of the country. "We want to welcome the decisions as a positive move," Abe told reporters in Tokyo. "We'll closely watch if the move will lead to the complete, verifiable and irreversible abandonment of North Korea's nuclear arms, weapons of mass destruction and missiles," he said, urging Pyongyang to take concrete actions. The North Korean decisions were made at the Third Plenary Meeting of the Workers' Party of Korea's Seventh Central Committee on Friday, according to a report by the country's state-run Korean Central News Agency on Saturday. On Tokyo's response, Abe said that Japan and the United States have fully discussed how to deal with possible changes in North Korea's policy. "Based on the discussions, Japan plans to handle the situation (bilaterally) with the United States and (trilaterally) with the United States and South Korea," he added. Abe met with U.S. President Donald Trump in Florida on Tuesday and Wednesday. Pyongyang's latest decisions came ahead of a meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in next Friday and a possible Kim-Trump meeting that may take place by early June. Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera, who is visiting Washington, told reporters that the North Korean decisions are "insufficient because they do not mention scrapping of the reclusive country's short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles (that are capable of reaching Japan) and nuclear weapons." He said, "Now is not the time to ease pressure on North Korea," adding, "There is no change in our policy of applying maximum pressure on the country to make it abandon its nuclear and missile programs." Japanese Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso, also in Washington, sounded cautious, saying at a press conference that North Korea has made promises many times in the past but then continued its nuclear and missile development programs. Meanwhile, Trump said on Twitter that the latest development is "very good news for North Korea and the world" and "big progress." He said he looks forward to meeting with Kim. A secretary to Moon also praised the North Korean move, saying that it is a meaningful progress toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. END