Japanese Communist Party Chair Kazuo Shii on March 9 issued a statement welcoming the recent move to hold a summit meeting between the US and North Korea. The full text of his statement is as follows:

JCP welcomes move to hold US-North Korea summit talks

Kazuo Shii

Chair, Japanese Communist Party

Member of the House of Representatives of Japan

Tokyo

March 9, 2018

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The South Korean president’s special envoy met with US President Donald Trump and informed him that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un expressed his intent to work to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and that he proposed to hold a summit meeting between the US and the North. According to the South Korean envoy, President Trump expressed his intention to meet with Mr. Kim by May to achieve the permanent denuclearization of the peninsula.

 

The Japanese Communist Party welcomes this move. We sincerely hope that such a summit meeting will lead to defusing the current crisis, easing tensions, denuclearization, and building a permanent peace regime.

 

The Japanese government should abandon its opposition to engaging in dialogue and support this move so that Pyongyang-Washington talks will bear fruit.