Trump to meet with Japanese prime minister, with North Korea summit a possibility
President Trump will meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the White House next week, with the possibility of a summit with North Korea seeming more likely since Mr. Trump called it off last week.
Abe, whose friendship Mr. Trump has praised, will meet with Mr. Trump on June 7. North Korea has been a high-priority topic for the two world leaders in past discussions. Particularly given how close Japan is to North Korea, it has a significant interest in what happens with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. According to the White House, the two leaders talked on Monday and discussed North Korea. When Abe and Mr. Trump met in April at Mar-a-Lago, they discussed continuing a "maximum pressure" campaign on North Korea, with the aim of denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. Abe emphasized the North's history of broken promises, even as Mr. Trump expressed optimism for a summit and its outcome.
Mr. Trump has struck a seemingly increasingly optimistic tone since canceling the Singapore summit Thursday. Now, the White House is describing it as an "expected" summit.
The U.S. and North Korea have been talking, Mr. Trump has said, and North Korea's vice chairman Kim Young Chol will meet with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in New York this week, according to White House press secretary Sarah Sanders.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, in an update Tuesday, said, "Since the president's May 24th letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the North Koreans have been engaging. The United States continues to actively prepare for President Trump's expected summit with leader Kim in Singapore."
On Tuesday, Japan's U.N. Ambassador Koro Bessho spoke to a small group of reporters, including CBS News. On the goals of the Summit, Bessho said maximum pressure should continue, CBS News' Pamela Falk reports.
"We are working very closely with the United States and happy with the understanding we have with the U.S. to keep the pressure up until concrete actions are taken by the North Koreans," Bessho said.
Asked what Japan would like to see from the June 12 meeting, he said, "We would like to see comprehensive verifiable irreversible dismantlement of nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction; the ballistic missiles dismantled irrespective of range; as well as addressing the abduction issue."
On the range of ballistic missiles, Bessho said that the U.S. is worried about intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), and South Korea is more concerned with mid-range and short-range missiles.
