SINGAPORE -- Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya on Saturday called for ensuring the effectiveness of U.N. Security Council sanctions resolutions on North Korea, and said the international community needs to work harder to monitor North Korean ships engaged in illegal ship-to-ship transfers of goods on the high seas.
He made the remarks in a speech at the Asia Security Summit, also known as the Shangri-La Dialogue, organized by the think tank International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Iwaya expressed Japan's "strong support" for the United States in negotiations aimed at achieving the denuclearization of North Korea. He called the weakening of international resolve the "most pressing risk" to denuclearization and the progress of U.S.-North Korea talks.
On that point, he urged South Korea, China and Russia, as well as Southeast Asian nations located along strategic shipping routes, to join countries such as Japan, the United States, Britain and Australia that are already monitoring for illegal ship-to-ship transfers by North Korea.
Iwaya also criticized North Korea's launching of short-range ballistic missiles on May 9, saying that it "violated relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions" and that it is "extremely regrettable." He reiterated Japan's position of seeking the complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of North Korea's weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles.
"If [North Korea] takes the right path, Japan will be unstinting in our assistance" to the country, he added.
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