Japan Press Weekly

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2017 November 1 - 7 [POLITICS]

Shii in statement: PM Abe should urge President Trump to engage in talks with N. Korea

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on November 2 issued a statement urging Prime Minister Abe Shinzo to make a proposal to engage in direct talks with North Korea to U.S. President Donald Trump during his visit to Japan.

On the same day, JCP Diet Policy Commission Chair Kokuta Keiji handed over Shii’s statement to his Liberal Democratic Party counterpart Moriyama Hiroshi in the Diet building. Moriyama said, “Taking the statement seriously, I’ll deliver it without delay to PM Abe.”

The full text of the statement is as follows:

US President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit Japan from November 5 to 7 and the Japan-US summit meeting will be held. How to deal with the North Korea issue will be at the top of the agenda of the summit.

Needless to say, North Korea’s nuclear and missile development is absolutely intolerable. At the same time, a devastating war must be prevented at all costs. The only solution to this issue is to work for peaceful resolution through dialogue while implementing economic sanctions on North Korea.

I urge Prime Minister Abe Shinzo to reconsider his past responses to this issue and present the following two demands to President Trump at the summit meeting.

Firstly, the United States and North Korea should enter into direct negotiations to overcome the current crisis.

We have paid attention to the moves in the US administration that seek dialogue with North Korea, as shown by statements made by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Meanwhile, there is a contradiction in the US government stance. President Trump recently told Tillerson that it is a waste of time to try to negotiate with North Korea.

In yesterday’s press conference, PM Abe said, “Dialogue for its own sake is meaningless.” It is a matter of grave concern that the prime minister continues to reject dialogue with North Korea.

Today’s greatest danger is that amid rising military tensions between Washington and Pyongyang, an accidental event or miscalculation may cause a military clash and that it may even develop into a war. It is the greatest responsibility of political leaders to avert a war on the Korean Peninsula that will endanger Japan as well.

I call on PM Abe to change his attitude of turning his back on dialogue and urge President Trump to open negotiations with North Korea in order to defuse the crisis and have the North abandon its nuclear development.

Secondly, PM Abe should demand that President Trump not conduct a preemptive military attack against North Korea.

As President Trump has repeatedly said, “all options are on the table,” fear over a possible preemptive strike by the US military is widely spread.

President Moon Jae-in of South Korea said in a speech on November 1, “Armed conflict must be avoided under any circumstance. No military action on the Korean Peninsula shall be taken without prior consent of the Republic of Korea,” while making clear his proposal to resolve the North Korea issue in a peaceful manner. Meanwhile, a group of lawmakers in the United States proposed on October 31 a bill aimed to prevent President Trump from conducting a preemptive attack against North Korea without prior consent of Congress.

PM Abe said yet again at a November 1 press conference, “I firmly support President Trump’s assertion that all options are on the table.” We believe that his stance is very dangerous since a preemptive strike is one of the options. We are not aware of any other political leader in the world who shares with PM Abe support for a US preemptive attack.

We strongly demand that PM Abe change his stance and call on President Trump to never authorize a preemptive strike against North Korea.