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Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe
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Japanese prime minister stresses importance of abductees detained in NK
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had a telephone conversation with US President Donald Trump on the evening of Feb. 20, leading up the second North Korea-US summit scheduled for Feb. 27-28. “Japan and the US have been in close consultation about our plans for responding to the second North Korea-US summit that’s scheduled for next week. Our two countries are in agreement about cooperating even more closely in several areas with the goal of resolving the nuclear weapon and missile issues as well as the abduction issue,” Abe said at his official residence following the phone call. The abduction issue is a reference to Japanese citizens who have been abducted by North Korea. “In particular, President Trump and I spent time discussing the abduction issue. I communicated to President Trump how much the families want to be reunited with their abducted relatives and want them to be come home and asked him for his cooperation,” Abe said. “President Trump listened carefully to what I had to say and made clearly that he’s fully aware of how important the abduction issue is to me and that the issue is important to him as well. Just as before, he promised his cooperation,” Abe emphasized. “Japan and the US agreed to work closely together in several stages in order to resolve the nuclear weapon, missile and abduction issues. President Trump agreed to give me a call after the North Korea-US summit to let me know the results of the summit,” Abe said. “I have strong hopes that the summit will lead to the peace and prosperity of Northeast Asia in connection with resolving the nuclear weapon and missile issues and the critical abduction issue. I want Japan and the US to cooperate even more toward those ends,” the prime minister added. About one week before the summit in Singapore last year, Abe flew to Washington for a summit with Trump. But prior to the second summit, Abe is only planning to have a telephone call without meeting Trump personally. Abe didn’t reveal when he would be having another telephone call with Trump before the North Korea-US summit. Trump to visit Japan in May and meet emperor In related news, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported that Japan and the US “had confirmed their plans for President Trump to pay a state visit to Japan from May 26-28.” Trump is planning to meet Japan’s new emperor, who will be assuming the throne around that time. Trump is also planning to visit Japan to attend the G20 meeting that will be held in Osaka in June, which means he has two visits to Japan coming up this year. By Cho Ki-weon, Tokyo correspondent Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
