Japan’s Abe says open to meeting Kim

UNITED NATIONS: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a longtime hardliner on North Korea, said on Tuesday he was willing to meet Kim Jong Un after the once reclusive leader’s historic summit with US President Donald Trump.

Abe, who one year ago warned at the United Nations that the window for diplomacy with North Korea was closing, took a more open but still cautious tone in his latest address to the world body.

But he said that any summit would be devoted to resolving a decades-old row over North Korea’s abductions of Japanese civilians -- a deeply emotive issue for much of the Japanese public on which Abe built his political career.

“In order to resolve the abduction issue, I am also ready to break the shell of mutual distrust with North Korea, get off to a new start and meet face to face with Chairman Kim Jong Un,” Abe said in his UN address.

“But if we are to have one, then I am determined that it must contribute to the resolution of the abduction issue.”

He stressed that no summit was yet in the works -- and appealed to Kim to show his own readiness.

“North Korea is now at a crossroads at which it will either seize or fail to seize the historic opportunity it was afforded,” Abe said.

POMPEO TO RETURN TO NORTH KOREA

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo signalled on Wednesday that he will return to North Korea next month to push forward denuclearization talks as President Donald Trump predicted breakthroughs soon.

Pompeo met his North Korean counterpart foreign minister Ri Yong Ho on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session and agreed to pay his fourth trip to the country.