Tokyo, 2 February, /AJMEDIA/
The Japanese and U.S. foreign ministers agreed Wednesday to closely cooperate toward the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, amid repeated North Korean ballistic missile launches since earlier this year, the Japanese government said.
In their telephone talks, Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also shared their “grave concern” over Russia’s military buildup along its border with Ukraine that has sparked concern about a possible invasion, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.
The talks came after North Korea on Sunday fired what its state-run media identified as a Hwasong-12 missile, apparently the first launch of an intermediate- and long-range ballistic missile since November 2017 that marked the seventh round of missile testing by the country since the beginning of the year.
In mid-January, Pyongyang hinted at the resumption of nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests.
North Korea’s missile launches “threaten the peace and stability of Japan and the international community,” Hayashi told reporters after the phone talks.
Several hours before talking with Hayashi, Blinken held phone talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, in which Blinken urged an “immediate” de-escalation and withdrawal of Russian troops from the border with Ukraine, according to the U.S. government.
