Donald Trump will take “all necessary measures” to protect US allies from the military threat of North Korea, said Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe after a phone call to the US President.
The conversation occurred on Monday, following North Korea’s second intercontinental ballistic missile test on Friday. In response, the US flew two two supersonic B-1B bombers over the Korean peninsula.
According to General Terrence J O’Shaughnessy, commander of the Pacific air forces, US units are ready to hit North Korea with “rapid, lethal, and overwhelming force”.
Abe told reporters that he is yet to find a peaceful solution to the peaceful issue.
“I completely agreed with President Trump on the recognition that we must take further action,”
“We have made repeated efforts to resolve the North Korean issue peacefully, coordinating between Japan and the United States and with the international community, but North Korea has trampled all over these efforts and unilaterally escalated [the situation],” Abe said. “China, Russia and the rest of the international community must take seriously this undeniable fact and increase their pressure.”
A statement from the White House following the phone call said: the two leaders “agreed that North Korea poses a grave and growing direct threat to the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and other countries near and far”.
Mr Trump “reaffirmed our ironclad commitment” to defend Japan and South Korea from an attack, “using the full range of United States capabilities”.
China’s state-run newspaper was less happy about Trump’s phone call with Abe.
The US President also sent out a tweet saying he was “disappointed in China”.
“Trump claims that ‘China could easily solve this problem,’” wrote the English language Chinese newspaper. “But such a statement could only be made by a greenhorn US president who knows little about the North Korean nuclear issue. Pyongyang is determined to develop its nuclear and missile program and does not care about military threats from the US and South Korea. How could Chinese sanctions change the situation?”