In his upcoming meeting in mid-April with U.S. President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to coordinate views on their North Korea policy ahead of South Korea-North Korea and U.S.-North Korea summit meetings and to urge the president to cooperate toward solving the issue of North Korea's abduction of Japanese citizens, in an effort to boost his administration through diplomacy.
And yet, moves surrounding North Korea have not unfolded in line with the Japanese government's scenario, presenting no clear prospect of how the prime minister will pull off diplomatic achievements.
At Monday's liaison meeting of the government and the ruling bloc, Abe referred to North Korea while announcing the schedule of his April 17-20 visit to the United States.
"We must maintain maximum pressure [on Pyongyang] to get North Korea to commit to, and take concrete actions for, the dismantlement of its nuclear [weapons and] missiles in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner."
On the abduction issue, he emphatically said, "I will request [Trump] in person to take up [the issue] at the meeting between U.S. and North Korean leaders."
During his first visit to the United States since February 2017, Abe is expected to meet with Trump on April 17 and 18 at the U.S. president's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump has already suggested to Tokyo his wish to play golf with Abe as he did during the prime minister's last U.S. visit. The golf session will likely provide "a precious chance to hold long one-to-one talks with Trump," a senior Foreign Ministry official said.
Even so, Tokyo is still considering whether to agree to play golf in light of currently strong public opinion against the Abe Cabinet over issues including the Finance Ministry's falsification of official documents.
The biggest outstanding diplomatic issue for Japan is the situation on the Korean Peninsula. Abe intends to thoroughly impart Japan's position on the issue to Trump in their upcoming meeting, prior to a summit meeting of the two Koreas set for April 27 and a summit meeting of the United States and North Korea scheduled to be held by the end of May.
Tokyo regards Pyongyang's "dialogue offensive" as a fruit of the pressure on North Korea, but it also feels rushed. "The South Korea-North Korea and U.S.-North Korea dialogues are developing at a speed faster than expected," a senior Foreign Ministry official said.
Abe plans to convey to Trump his view that the pressure on North Korea should not be easily loosened by repeatedly explaining the lessons learned from the failures of past talks with Pyongyang.
Nevertheless, unpredictability is part of Trump's signature style. In his meeting with North Korean leader and chairman of the Workers' Party of Korea Kim Jong Un, the U.S. president might prioritize freezing Pyongyang's development of intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reaching the U.S. mainland, thereby leaving intact the threats of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles that put Japan within range.
Meanwhile, in the Abe-Trump meeting, the gap might widen over the economic field, as the U.S. government imposed additional import tariffs on steel and aluminum products on March 23. Abe plans to urge Trump in person during the meeting to offer Japan an exemption from the tariffs.
According to some observers, however, the president may not only demand the reduction of the U.S. trade deficit with Japan but also bring up the idea of starting talks for a bilateral free trade agreement, as he needs specific achievements to show domestic voters ahead of the U.S. midterm elections in November.
Trump is known for boasting of his deal-making prowess, provoking a lingering sense of caution in the Japanese government that he might link North Korea issues to talks on the economy.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
