Commitment needed to deal with N Korea threat

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has held telephone talks with US President Donald Trump, and the two leaders confirmed their policy of reinforcing pressure on North Korea, which recently launched a second intercontinental ballistic missile.
“North Korea’s threat has remarkably increased. [Its latest conduct] must never be tolerated,” the prime minister told the president. Meanwhile, Trump said he was very concerned about the situation as the missile had landed in a spot close to Japan, emphasising his country’s “ironclad commitment to defend Japan”. The two leaders agreed that China and Russia have an extremely important role to play in working toward the adoption of a new UN Security Council resolution to impose sanctions on North Korea.
The key to achieving this is to urge China – a nation that possesses a strong influence on the North – to adopt effective sanctions on that country, such as restrictions on its crude oil supply.
Trump told the prime minister that he had tweeted: “I am very disappointed in China”.
This remark reflects the fact that China has remained passive about imposing strict sanctions on the North, even though the US president urged Beijing to achieve results in tackling the North Korean problem within three months in a US-China summit meeting in April.
If the Security Council does not take strong action, it would send North Korea an erroneous message, as if to say the UN body takes ICBM launches by that country lightly.
A sense of urgency was reflected in a statement issued by US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, calling for additional sanctions on the North. The United States sees “no point in having an emergency session if it produces nothing of consequence,” she said in reference to such a meeting at the Security Council.
The US is shaking up China through its decision to slap its own financial sanctions on Chinese corporations and other organisations that maintain deep relations with North Korea.
Opposing additional sanctions on the North means leaving that country to engage in reckless behaviour. China should seriously take to heart growing international distrust and fulfil its responsibility as a permanent member of the Security Council. 
The Japanese and US leaders also agreed to take specific actions aimed at improving the defence capabilities of the Self-Defence Forces and the US armed forces. 
Joint training involving F-2 fighter planes from the Air Self-Defence Force and B-1 strategic bombers from the US Air Force was conducted in an area of airspace that extends from the western Kyushu district to waters off the Korean Peninsula. The US Air Force also carried out a joint exercise with the South Korean Air Force.
It was appropriate to conduct the joint exercises two days after the latest ICBM launch, thereby displaying trilateral cooperative ties among Japan, the US and South Korea. It is important for them to cooperate even more closely and build a structure for immediate responses to emergencies.
The Japanese and US governments are set to hold a meeting of the Japan-US Security Consultative Committee – the so-called two-plus-two meeting of the foreign and defence ministers from both nations – as early as this month. They must properly coordinate how to impose effective diplomatic and military pressure on North Korea.