President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will meet ahead of a potential summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Japanese officials told The Washington Post on Monday.
The two leaders agreed on the meeting after speaking on the phone Monday.
The get-together will give Trump and Abe the opportunity to coordinate their strategy amid concerns in Tokyo over the peace talks.
A Japanese official said the meeting could come on the sidelines of the Group of Seven economic gathering in Quebec on June 8-9, or Abe could visit Washington on his way to that conference.
Japan is concerned a deal with North Korea could ignore its security interests, and Abe has urged negotiations with Kim also include curbs on Pyongyang's short- and medium-range ballistic missiles.
After Trump's recent back and forth on the summit – after he canceled it Thursday and a few days later said prospects are good for holding it – the Japanese government has been trying to understand the president's intentions, according to the South China Morning Post.
Abe told reporters, in the phone call, he was briefed by Trump about recent developments, although he did not elaborate on the details.
Abe also asked Trump to raise the unresolved cases of 12 Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s.
Since taking office, the Japanese prime minister has made the issue a top priority.
Abe said he had met with some family members of the abductees hours before the call with Trump and "conveyed their feelings" to the president over the phone.
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