President Moon Jae-in calls his Japanese counterpart Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on May 30 and stresses the need for stronger cooperation among the international community, including Korea, Japan, the U.S. and China, on responding to the ceaseless provocations from North Korea. (Cheong Wa Dae)

By Sohn JiAe

President Moon Jae-in talked to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe over the phone on May 30 to discuss issues involving North Korea.

President Moon said, “Stronger commitment to jointly responding to provocations from North Korea is required among the international community, including Korea, the U.S., Japan and China. In this sense, I highly appreciate you playing a leading role as a G7 member to adopt a communiqué at the most recent summit in Italy.”

"It’s important to take action whenever Pyongyang carries out a nuclear test. No less important is finding a fundamental solution to the matter. The international community should deal firmly with this North Korea issue, while, at the same time, send a message that it’s also open to dialogue, but only if the regime abandons its nuclear weapons ambitions,” President Moon said.

The Japanese prime minister responded by saying that, “The G7 leaders acknowledged that North Korean issues are the priority among other challenges that the international community must handle. We also agreed that nuclear weapons developed by the North must be discarded in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner.”

Denouncing the latest missile tests by Pyongyang as “a challenge to the international community and, also, an inexcusable act,” the prime minister stressed that, “Japan will take a concrete course of action so as to deter further threats from the North, and will enhance security cooperation with the U.S. and Korea.”

Emphasizing that “Seoul should play a leading role in putting pressure on the regime and in international efforts at the U.N, as well as in terms of trilateral Korea-U.S.-Japan cooperation,” the Japanese leader said, “I hope that President Moon will be able to visit Japan early in his term. I also plan to send a special envoy to Seoul, as you recently dispatched Moon Hee-sang as an envoy to Tokyo.”

In response, President Moon said that, “I hope we`ll carry on dialogue about this matter. If you`re sending a special envoy, I`ll speak with him.”

President Moon finished by saying that, “I look forward to talking with you at the upcoming G20 summit to be held in Germany in July.”

***