Japan-United States of America Relations
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Receives a Courtesy Call from
the Secretary of State of the United States Mike Pompeo
October 6, 2018
On October 6, commencing at around 5 p.m. for approximately an hour, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe received a courtesy call from The Honorable Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State of the United States, during his visit to Japan. The overview of the meeting is as follows.
- At the beginning, Prime Minister Abe welcomed Secretary Pompeo’s visit to Japan, and stated that he highly appreciated the Secretary’s visit to Japan right before his visit to North Korea. Prime Minister Abe said that he would like to closely align their policies regarding the abductions, nuclear, and missile issues. In response, Secretary Pompeo expressed his gratitude towards Prime Minister Abe for taking his time to meet him, despite it being on Saturday, and mentioned that it is important to confirm that Japan and the U.S. are completely in sync, prior to his visit to North Korea.
- Based on the results of the recent Japan-U.S. Summit Meeting, Prime Minister Abe and Secretary Pompeo reaffirmed their shared goal of achieving the full implementation of the relevant United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions towards the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and also shared the view that Japan and the U.S., as well as Japan, the U.S, and ROK, would continue to closely coordinate their policies in order to urge North Korea to take concrete actions.
- In addition, Secretary Pompeo said that he will bring up the abductions issue during his visit to North Korea. Prime Minister Abe and Secretary Pompeo reaffirmed that Japan and the U.S. will continue working together to resolve the abductions issue.