North Korean leader Kim Jong Un talks with the South Korean delegation led by Chung Eui-yong, head of the presidential National Security Office, in Pyongyang, North Korea, March 6, 2018. The Presidential Blue House/Yonhap via REUTERS/File Photo
Reuters: Possibility of North Korea detente stirs diplomatic angst in Japan
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 skepticism, 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 colonization 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.
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WNU Editor: The momentum that both the U.S. and Japan have been pushing for on North Korean sanctions has definitely hit a road-block. Right now .... this entire process of talking with North Korea will need to play itself out .... and yes, the Japanese are going to be left out.
