On April 30, after meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Foreign Minister Taro Aso said the world should begin thinking about tough action if the North does not begin making progress on obligations made in a February nuclear disarmament agreement.

"We cannot wait for a long time," Aso told reporters after his 45-minute meeting with Rice.

During the recent summit between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President George W. Bush, the leaders urged North Korea to live up to its disarmament promises and suggested increased sanctions if the matter is not resolved.

At the May 1 meeting, Aso, Rice, Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma and U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates discussed a plan to move a U.S. Marine Corps airstrip from its position next to the bustling city of Ginowan on the island of Okinawa to a more remote location and to shift 8,000 Marines on the island to Guam, a U.S. Pacific territory.

Those efforts are part of a sweeping agreement reached last year to realign the 50,000 U.S. forces that have been stationed in Japan since World War II. The goal is to give Japan greater responsibility for security in the region, while reducing tensions between U.S. troops and local residents.

Aso also raised another major Japanese concern: that the U.S. continue pressing North Korea to resolve the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by the North in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Japan Times Weekly: May 5, 2007
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