Japan has been busy meeting with the member nations of the six-party talks amid fears it could be left out of negotiations on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
Aiming to meet with all of the concerned parties with the exception of Pyongyang, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is due to meet Russian President Vladimir Purin in the coming days.
Kim Hyo-sun has more.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will visit Moscow later this week to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Abe's scheduled visit on May 26th will be an opportunity for him to personally congratulate Putin on his fourth term,... but most importantly, it will be a chance for him to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula with the Russian leader.
Tokyo has called for a complete and irreversible dismantlement of North Korea's nuclear programs,... while Moscow continues to insist that this is something which cannot be achieved in a short timeframe.
Once Abe sits down with Putin,... he will have discussed the denuclearization issue with all of the countries of the six-party talks,... excluding North Korea.
"North Korea must show actions towards denuclearization. I discussed this issue with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and South Korean President Moon Jae-in."
Following his summit with U.S. President Donald Trump last month,... Abe is making efforts to sit down with him again on the sidelines of the G7 Summit, to be held in Canada early next month.
Watchers also expect Abe will even fly to Singapore following the North Korea-U.S. summit to hear the results of the talks directly from President Trump.
While Abe has looked for ways to engage in dialogue with Pyongyang by bringing up the issue of Japanese abductees in the North,... the regime has firmly rejected such overtures.
Tokyo is currently exerting every effort not to be excluded from the denuclearization talks,... and is especially preparing for a possible multilateral discussion among the countries of the six-party talks.
Kim Hyo-sun, Arirang News.
