WASHINGTON -- Foreign Minister Taro Kono held talks with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday in Washington, where the two sides confirmed that U.S. President Donald Trump would raise the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea in his summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Trump and Kim are scheduled to meet on Tuesday.
Kono and Pompeo spoke for about 25 minutes at the U.S. State Department. They also agreed to maintain sanctions imposed on North Korea, based on U.N. Security Council resolutions, while seeking North Korea's complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization.
Their Wednesday meeting was their third, and followed talks held in Washington on May 23.
On Wednesday, Pompeo explained to Kono about the prospect of the U.S.-North Korea summit meeting. The two top diplomats agreed that they would meet again after Trump and Kim's talks to share relevant information. Arrangements are under way to hold both Japan-U.S. bilateral and Japan-U.S.-South Korea trilateral foreign ministers' meetings in Seoul on June 14.
Kono requested again that the abduction issue be on the agenda of the U.S.-North Korea summit meeting, and Pompeo agreed.
The two diplomats also confirmed a policy of urging North Korea to take concrete steps toward abandoning all of its weapons of mass destruction, as well as the country's ballistic missiles of any range, including short- and medium-range missiles that threaten Japan's security.
Trump said on June 1, "I don't even want to use the term 'maximum pressure' anymore" regarding North Korea. After his meeting with Pompeo, Kono told reporters, "I think it's a message asking Chairman Kim Jong Un of the Wokers' Party of Korea to deal with the situation so that [Trump] doesn't have to put into effect the [additional] economic sanctions that are in [Trump's] hand."
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