TOKOUS – American and Japanese diplomats agreed on Tuesday to increase pressure on North Korea to resolve tensions on its nuclear program, indicating the need to be prepared for the worst if diplomacy fails.
After interviewing his Japanese counterpart, Shinskuki Sujayama, the US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan told reporters that the focus in the Foreign Ministry was still on diplomacy to solve the problem and eventually nuclear disarmament between the Korean Peninsula.
He said: “We must, however, be with our allies in Japan, South Korea and other places, to be ready for the worst in the event of diplomacy failure.” He said that the United States should be ready to defend itself and its allies.
Sugiyama, who surveyed journalists, repeatedly repeated Japan’s support for President Donald Trump’s policy of keeping all options open, but stressed the need for a diplomatic solution by enhancing cooperation between Japan, the United States and South Korea, as well as through cooperation with China and Russia.
Diplomats will join their counterpart in South Korea in Seoul for more talks on Wednesday in North Korea.
Read more: Rex Tillerson says a diplomat with North Korea “until the first bomb decreases.”
The talks come at a time when the United States and South Korea holds joint naval exercises this week. They regularly do common exercises, although North Korea condemns them as a recession.
On Monday, the deputy of the United Nations Ambassador to North Korea warned that the situation on the peninsula “reached the point of touch and mobility, and the nuclear war may erupt at any moment.”
Kim told Ryong, the United Nations Disademate Committee, that North Korea was subjected to a direct nuclear threat from the United States and has the right to possess nuclear weapons to self -defense.
He referred to military exercises and what he called the United States to photograph “a secret process aimed at removing our supreme leadership.”
Kim’s speech is increasingly following the difficult United Nations sanctions. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that his country reduces economic, scientific and other relations with North Korea in line with the United Nations sanctions, and the European Union also declared new sanctions as well.