Abe hails N. Korea decision to stop nuke, ICBM testing
Jiji -- Apr 22
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday praised North Korea's decisions to stop nuclear testing and test-firing of intercontinental ballistic missiles, and abolish its nuclear test site in the northern part of the country.

"We want to welcome the decisions as a positive move," Abe told reporters in Tokyo.

"We'll closely watch if the move will lead to the complete, verifiable and irreversible abandonment of North Korea's nuclear arms, weapons of mass destruction and missiles," he said, urging Pyongyang to take concrete actions.

The North Korean decisions were made at the Third Plenary Meeting of the Workers' Party of Korea's Seventh Central Committee on Friday, according to a report by the country's state-run Korean Central News Agency on Saturday.

On Tokyo's response, Abe said that Japan and the United States have fully discussed how to deal with possible changes in North Korea's policy. "Based on the discussions, Japan plans to handle the situation (bilaterally) with the United States and (trilaterally) with the United States and South Korea," he added.

News source: Jiji