Trump, Abe agree to punish North Korea

In a 52-minute teleconference, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed to take “further actions” to counter North Korea’s intercontinental ballistic missile threat.

“Under the strong JapanU.S. bond, we will take concrete actions to enhance our defense capabilities and do all we can to ensure that the public is safe from the North Korean threat,” Japan Times quoted Abe, as saying. “We highly value the commitment by Trump to take all necessary steps to protect allied countries” from North Korea’s growing missile threat, he added.

The teleconference followed the North Korea’s second test of an intercontinental ballistic missile that has the potential to hit the “entire U.S. mainland”. Japan hosts a number of U.S. military bases and Tokyo fears that it could become an important target for North Korea if a second Korean war break out.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Japan would exhaust “each and every method” to urge countries to fully follow through with economic sanctions against the North as required by U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Experts say the U.S. is unlikely to launch a military strike against the North — at least for now — because that would likely spur an unacceptable level of retaliation that would endanger both Koreans and Americans of all types. War would be particularly devastating in densely populated Seoul, which is close to the demilitarized zone.

“China accounts for 90 percent of the value of trade by North Korea,” Suga said, “China should play a very big role” in putting pressure Pyongyang to halt its missile advances.