Japan Press Weekly

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2018 February 14 - 20 [POLITICS]

Koike criticizes Abe for seemingly egging Seoul on to adopt militaristic posture

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira on February 13 criticized Prime Minister Abe Shinzo for seeming to attempt to "instigate South Korea to adopt militaristic posture".

PM Abe at a Japan-South Korea Summit meeting in PyeongChang reportedly asked President Moon Jae-in to carry out U.S.-South Korea joint military exercises as scheduled.

Regarding this report, Koike in a walking interview inside the Diet building said to the press, "That isn't the stance a leader of the country that has a war-renouncing Article 9 in its Constitution should take."

Koike referred to the remarks U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence in a recent newspaper interview made, "If they (N. Korea) want to talk, we will talk." Koike then said, "It is noteworthy that Pence said the U.S. is open to talks without preconditions. I hope the recent Seoul-Pyongyang talks will lead to future contacts between Washington and Pyongyang."

It has been reported that Abe insisted that South Korea "should not fall for smile diplomacy" and that "dialogue just for the purpose of dialogue is meaningless", and that President Moon in response said, "The North-South dialogue should not derail efforts toward eventual denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula or disturb efforts aiming for international cooperation."