 |
|
US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speak to the press prior to lunch at the Kasumigaseki Country Club in Tokyo last November. (AFP/Yonhap News)
|
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to meet with US President Trump on Apr. 17
The White House announced that while a place and date for a planned summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has not been decided, it remains unchanged in its plans to hold the meeting in “May or early June.” A senior US government official declined to give details when asked about the meeting’s place and schedule during an Apr. 13 briefing on a US-Japan summit scheduled for Apr. 17–18, but said Trump’s public remarks about the summit being held in May or early June were still valid. With a decision on the summit’s venue required for security and protocol issues to be discussed, observers are predicting Pyongyang and Washington will not be able to put the matter off much longer. The official also responded to reports that Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to request discussions during the North Korea-US summit on eliminating missiles within firing range of Japan, stressing that Trump was “always keeping careful consideration of the interests of our allies and our alliances as well as the interests of securing the American people here at home.” In a Senate confirmation hearing on Apr. 12, Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo stressed the “need to ensure that we continue to provide a strategic deterrence framework for our allies in the region: the South Koreans, the Japanese and others as well.” “But the purpose of the meeting is to address the threat to the United States,” he added. His remarks were seen as suggesting that the chief interest for Washington at the summit with North Korea will be negotiations on intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) capable of striking the continental US. The US official further addressed the question of golfing at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida where the US-Japan summit is taking place, stressing that Abe was making a “working visit” and that golf was not on the official schedule. According to the official, Trump and Abe are scheduled to have a one-on-one meeting followed by small-scale talks on the afternoon of Apr. 17, with an extended bilateral meeting, afternoon joint press conference, and dinner on Apr. 18. Meanwhile, the Kyodo news agency reported on Apr. 15 that Abe had begun coordination efforts toward having the two leaders express the need to reject Pyongyang’s demands for “step-by-step, simultaneous denuclearization” at the US-Japan summit. But with a large difference in views between North Korea on one side and the US and Japan on the other, it remains unclear whether major concessions can be gained from North Korea without adopting an “action for action” approach involving guarantees for step-by-step implementation, the agency said. The signing of a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) and steel tariffs are also expected to be contentious issues at the summit, with White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders stating that “trade will certainly be something that is discussed.” By Cho Ki-weon, Tokyo correspondent and Yi Yong-in, Washington correspondent Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
