Japan's prime minister warned Thursday that North Korea's offer of denuclearisation talks with the United States could be a ploy to play for time and stressed the need for Pyongyang to take "concrete" steps.

In his first public comments since an apparent diplomatic breakthrough between North and South Korea, Shinzo Abe said that talking for the sake of talking was "meaningless."

"I've repeatedly said that we have to create a situation of putting maximum pressure on North Korea so that the North wants to have talks with us," Abe told MPs.

"However... it is true that the North has in the past earned time to develop nuclear capabilities and missiles" during periods of negotiation, Abe cautioned.

"Talks for the sake of talks are meaningless and we should never loosen sanctions just because North Korea is open to talks," added the hawkish prime minister.

In the latest chapter of a rapid Olympics-driven rapprochement on the Korean peninsula, Pyongyang has said it would consider giving up its nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees.

However, analysts have warned that any path to a US-North Korea deal over nuclear weapons is fraught with danger and uncertainty.

Japan, a close US ally in the region, is in the direct firing line of North Korean missiles and saw two fly over its territory in 2017, sparking outrage and lifting tensions to fever pitch.

Despite the apparent recent detente, Abe said Japan's position was unchanged: "North Korea has to show concrete actions toward denuclearisation by committing to abandon its nuclear programme via complete, verifiable and irreversible means."

Abe said he was looking forward to a briefing from a South Korean envoy about his talks with the North when he visits Japan next week.</s>TOKYO, March 9 (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Friday he confirmed in telephone talks with U.S. President Donald Trump that the international community needed to continue to put maximum pressure on North Korea.

Abe also told reporters he hoped to visit the United States as early as next month to meet Trump to discuss North Korea, among other issues.

"We welcome the change in North Korea's stance", Abe said, indicating Pyongyang was ready to start discussions on the premise of denuclearisation. (Reporting by Kaori Kaneko and Chang-Ran Kim Editing by Paul Tait)</s>Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Friday he confirmed in telephone talks with U.S. President Donald Trump that the international community needed to continue to put maximum pressure on North Korea. Abe also told reporters he hoped to visit the United States as early as next month to meet Trump to discuss North Korea, among other issues. “We welcome the change in North Korea’s stance”, Abe said, indicating Pyongyang was ready to start discussions on the premise of denuclearisation.</s>Prime Minister Shinzo Abe warned Thursday that North Korea’s offer of denuclearization talks with the United States could be a ploy to play for time, and stressed the need for Pyongyang to take “concrete” steps.

In his first public comments since an apparent diplomatic breakthrough between North and South Korea, Abe said that talking for the sake of talking was “meaningless.”

“I’ve repeatedly said that we have to create a situation of putting maximum pressure on North Korea so that the North wants to have talks with us,” Abe told members of the Diet.

“However … it is true that the North has in the past earned time to develop nuclear capabilities and missiles” during periods of negotiation, Abe cautioned.

“Talks for the sake of talks are meaningless and we should never loosen sanctions just because North Korea is open to talks,” he added.

In the latest chapter of a rapid, Olympics-driven rapprochement on the Korean peninsula, Pyongyang has said it would consider giving up its nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees.

However, analysts have warned that any path to a U.S.-North Korea deal over nuclear weapons is fraught with danger and uncertainty.

Japan, a close U.S. ally in the region, is in the direct firing line of North Korean missiles and saw two fly over its territory in 2017, sparking outrage and lifting tensions to fever pitch.

Despite the apparent recent detente, Abe said Japan’s position was unchanged: “North Korea has to show concrete actions toward denuclearization by committing to abandon its nuclear program via complete, verifiable and irreversible means.”

Abe said he was looking forward to a briefing from a South Korean envoy about his talks with the North when the envoy visits Japan next week.</s>TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Friday he confirmed in telephone talks with U.S. President Donald Trump that the international community needed to continue to put maximum pressure on North Korea.

Abe also told reporters he hoped to visit the United States as early as next month to meet Trump to discuss North Korea, among other issues.

“We welcome the change in North Korea’s stance”, Abe said, indicating Pyongyang was ready to start discussions on the premise of denuclearisation.</s>"We've maintained very close communication with President Moon. They are keeping us well-informed of their meetings," he said. "We're providing them input as well."

He said the U.S. and North Korea were still "a long ways from negotiations," and the United States needed to remain "very clear-eyed and realistic."

The first step is to have talks about whether to hold negotiations — "to have talks about talks," Tillerson said.

South Korean and the U.S. plan to kick off their delayed springtime military drills next month, and how sensitively the North reacts will affect the mood of reconciliation that was revived by North Korea's participation in last month's Winter Olympics held in the South. The North has responded to past joint drills by the allies with fiery rhetoric and its own weapons tests.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan's policy of pressuring North Korea does not change just because its leadership is now open to dialogue.

"We should not ease our stance, for instance relax sanctions, just because North Korea agreed to have a dialogue," Abe told a parliamentary session on Thursday. "We should not give North Korea a reward in exchange for a dialogue."

China, the North's most important ally, encouraged follow-up measures while noting the progress was in part due to the suspension of both North Korean nuclear tests and U.S.-South Korean military exercises during the Olympics.

"This proves that China's proposal of suspension for suspension was the right prescription for the problem and created basic conditions for the improvement of inter-Korean relations," Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters in Beijing. He said North Korea's security concerns should be addressed in return for denuclearization.

Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are to meet at a border village in late April, when the South Korea-U.S. drills would likely be still under way. If realized, the Moon-Kim meeting would be the rivals' third-ever summit since their 1945 division.

Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Josh Lederman in Addis Ababa contributed to this report.

By Hyung-Jin Kim, The Associated Press</s>TOKYO (Reuters) - An agreement between North and South Korea to hold a summit and signals about possible talks between North Korea and the United States are stirring concern in Japan about its diplomatic nightmare - being left out in the cold.

Signs of easing tension over North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, greeted in Tokyo with scepticism, come as Japan faces a possible trade feud with the United States over steel and rocky ties with South Korea over their bitter history, including Japan’s 1910-1945 colonisation of the peninsula.

“The main concern is that South Korea may have jumped too easily to a proposal by North Korea for a bilateral meeting,” said a former senior Japanese diplomat who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the topic.

A South Korean delegation returned home on Tuesday from a first-ever meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, to announce the agreement on a North-South summit next month, the first since 2007.

The South Koreans also announced that Kim had offered to hold talks with the United States on denuclearisation and to halt nuclear and missile tests while negotiating. North Korea’s recent missile tests have included two fired over Japan.

U.S. President Donald Trump said North Korea seemed “sincere”.

The former diplomat said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe faced uncertain times.

“As for Washington, Trump is such an unpredictable guy. If anything will help elevate his approval domestically, he’ll jump,” he said.

“If North Korea sits down with Washington, it will have absolutely no interest whatsoever in sitting down with Japan. That will make Abe’s position very difficult.”

Japan has maintained its call for “maximum pressure” on North Korea amid signs of easing tension that began during the Winter Olympics in South Korea last month, warning that “talks for the sake of talks” were unacceptable.

Abe has stressed that Washington shares that stance.

“In order for there to be meaningful talks with North Korea, it must commit to compete, verifiable and irreversible abandonment of its nuclear and missile programmes and take concrete steps toward denuclearisation,” Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters on Wednesday.

“Our country will continue cooperation with the United States, and among the United States, Japan and South Korea, and there is no change in our stance of putting maximum pressure by all means to get North Korea to change its policies,” he added.

Abe has called the North Korean crisis the toughest security crisis faced by Japan since World War Two and his stern stance has generally won him support at home.

Despite the long-standing security alliance between the United States and Japan, worries that the United States may cut a deal to protect its cities from nuclear attack by the North, while leaving Japan vulnerable, have simmered.

“Japan’s eternal fear is that it will be cut out of negotiations over the state of relations with North Korea,” said Brad Glosserman, a visiting professor at Tama University.

“The concern is that Trump is prepared to cut a deal and show the world that the ‘special relationship between Shinzo and Donald’, and America and Japan, is empty and that he will rip it up in a heartbeat,” Glosserman said.

Katsuyuki Kawai, an adviser to Abe, is in Washington this week seeking, he told Reuters before departure, to reinforce the alliance and talk up the need for trilateral coordination among the United States, Japan and South Korea.

“Japan is not an observer, Japan is one of the important actors,” Kawai said.

However, ties between Japan and America’s other key Asian ally, South Korea, have been frayed since President Moon Jae-in took office last May and cast doubts over a 2015 agreement meant to lay to rest a feud over “comfort women”, a euphemism for women forced to work in Japanese wartime military brothels.

Both sides have said that dispute should not snarl coordination over North Korea, but the chill is real and any sign Trump was favouring South Korea’s softer approach could fan Japan’s angst.

“If America goes with talks, it aligns more closely to South Korea than Japan at a time when relations with South Korea are rocky,” Glosserman said.</s>TOKYO (Reuters) - An agreement between North and South Korea to hold a summit and signals about possible talks between North Korea and the United States are stirring concern in Japan about its diplomatic nightmare - being left out in the cold.

Signs of easing tension over North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, greeted in Tokyo with scepticism, come as Japan faces a possible trade feud with the United States over steel and rocky ties with South Korea over their bitter history, including Japan’s 1910-1945 colonisation of the peninsula.

“The main concern is that South Korea may have jumped too easily to a proposal by North Korea for a bilateral meeting,” said a former senior Japanese diplomat who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the topic.

A South Korean delegation returned home on Tuesday from a first-ever meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, to announce the agreement on a North-South summit next month, the first since 2007.

The South Koreans also announced that Kim had offered to hold talks with the United States on denuclearisation and to halt nuclear and missile tests while negotiating. North Korea’s recent missile tests have included two fired over Japan.

U.S. President Donald Trump said North Korea seemed “sincere”.

The former diplomat said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe faced uncertain times.

“As for Washington, Trump is such an unpredictable guy. If anything will help elevate his approval domestically, he’ll jump,” he said.

“If North Korea sits down with Washington, it will have absolutely no interest whatsoever in sitting down with Japan. That will make Abe’s position very difficult.”

Japan has maintained its call for “maximum pressure” on North Korea amid signs of easing tension that began during the Winter Olympics in South Korea last month, warning that “talks for the sake of talks” were unacceptable.

Abe has stressed that Washington shares that stance.

“In order for there to be meaningful talks with North Korea, it must commit to compete, verifiable and irreversible abandonment of its nuclear and missile programmes and take concrete steps towards denuclearisation,” Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera told reporters on Wednesday.

“Our country will continue cooperation with the United States, and among the United States, Japan and South Korea, and there is no change in our stance of putting maximum pressure by all means to get North Korea to change its policies,” he added.

Abe has called the North Korean crisis the toughest security crisis faced by Japan since World War Two and his stern stance has generally won him support at home.

Despite the long-standing security alliance between the United States and Japan, worries that the United States may cut a deal to protect its cities from nuclear attack by the North, while leaving Japan vulnerable, have simmered.

“Japan’s eternal fear is that it will be cut out of negotiations over the state of relations with North Korea,” said Brad Glosserman, a visiting professor at Tama University.

“The concern is that Trump is prepared to cut a deal and show the world that the ‘special relationship between Shinzo and Donald’, and America and Japan, is empty and that he will rip it up in a heartbeat,” Glosserman said.

Katsuyuki Kawai, an adviser to Abe, is in Washington this week seeking, he told Reuters before departure, to reinforce the alliance and talk up the need for trilateral coordination among the United States, Japan and South Korea.

“Japan is not an observer, Japan is one of the important actors,” Kawai said.

However, ties between Japan and America’s other key Asian ally, South Korea, have been frayed since President Moon Jae-in took office last May and cast doubts over a 2015 agreement meant to lay to rest a feud over “comfort women”, a euphemism for women forced to work in Japanese wartime military brothels.

Both sides have said that dispute should not snarl coordination over North Korea, but the chill is real and any sign Trump was favouring South Korea’s softer approach could fan Japan’s angst.

“If America goes with talks, it aligns more closely to South Korea than Japan at a time when relations with South Korea are rocky,” Glosserman said.</s>TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera said on Wednesday that North Korea’s intentions were unclear and careful analysis was needed, when asked by reporters about plans for a summit by North and South Korea.

Onodera said there was no change to Japan’s stance that maximum pressure on North Korea was needed in cooperation with the United States and South Korea.

He said that for meaningful dialogue to happen, North Korea must take concrete steps towards denuclearisation.</s>"We've maintained very close communication with President Moon. They are keeping us well-informed of their meetings," he said. "We're providing them input as well."

He said the U.S. and North Korea were still "a long ways from negotiations," and the United States needed to remain "very clear-eyed and realistic."

The first step is to have talks about whether to hold negotiations — "to have talks about talks," Tillerson said.

South Korean and the U.S. plan to kick off their delayed springtime military drills next month, and how sensitively the North reacts will affect the mood of reconciliation that was revived by North Korea's participation in last month's Winter Olympics held in the South. The North has responded to past joint drills by the allies with fiery rhetoric and its own weapons tests.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Japan's policy of pressuring North Korea does not change just because its leadership is now open to dialogue.

"We should not ease our stance, for instance relax sanctions, just because North Korea agreed to have a dialogue," Abe told a parliamentary session on Thursday. "We should not give North Korea a reward in exchange for a dialogue."

China, the North's most important ally, encouraged follow-up measures while noting the progress was in part due to the suspension of both North Korean nuclear tests and U.S.-South Korean military exercises during the Olympics.

"This proves that China's proposal of suspension for suspension was the right prescription for the problem and created basic conditions for the improvement of inter-Korean relations," Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters in Beijing. He said North Korea's security concerns should be addressed in return for denuclearization.

Moon and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un are to meet at a border village in late April, when the South Korea-U.S. drills would likely be still under way. If realized, the Moon-Kim meeting would be the rivals' third-ever summit since their 1945 division.

Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Josh Lederman in Addis Ababa contributed to this report.

By Hyung-Jin Kim, The Associated Press
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe says inter-Korea talks could be a "meaningless" ploy by North Korea.