Russia’s involvement necessary for settlement of DPRK issue, for fighting terrorism - Japanese PM

TOKYO, January 15. /TASS/. Constructive involvement of Russia is necessary for settlement of the situation emerging in the Korean Peninsula, as well as for fighting the international terrorism, Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told the country’s parliament on Friday. "For us, development of relations with Russia is important - not only from the aspect of bilateral relations, but for joint settlement of various international issues, including the problem of North Korea," he said, adding he would "continue working on better variants for his trip to Russia and for the visit of the Russian president to Japan." On November 16, 2015, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was planning to visit one of Russian regions ahead of President Vladimir Putin’s trip to Tokyo. Putin’s visit to Japan "would be further discussed," Peskov said then. Abe’s possible visit was on agenda of the recent visit to Moscow of Japan’s ex-foreign minister Masahiko Komura, who is vice-president of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and the chairman of the Japan-Russia Parliamentary Friendship Association. In Moscow, on January 10-13, he met with speaker of the State Duma Sergei Naryshkin. The State Duma’s head of the foreign relations committee Alexei Pushkov told reporters, however, the parties had not discussed in details preparations for the visit or its timing. On January 13, foreign ministers of the countries, Sergei Lavrov and Fumio Kishida, also discussed the situation in the Korean Peninsula and the security situation in North-Eastern Asia as on January 6 the DPRK announced a nuclear test. Russia’s Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin earlier said Moscow ready to work on a new resolution of the UN Security Council on North Korea. Read more