Abe made the comment at an Upper House committee meeting on Wednesday. Abe said Tokyo has asked Beijing for more details about the summit , and that it was clear that North Korea had asked China for a meeting -- a dialogue prior to the planned inter-Korean and US-North Korea summit meetings.
He said such a change in North Korea's attitude is the result of an unwavering international campaign to apply maximum pressure to the country. Abe said even China and Russia participated in this campaign. He added that Japan had taken the lead, in making it a worldwide campaign.
Abe also said the emphasis should not be on just holding talks, but on forcing North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons and missiles.
He said he will continue working with other countries to have Pyongyang take concrete actions toward denuclearization, and stressed that sanctions should be kept in place until that happens.
