Trump, Japan's Abe Agree to Keep Unity on North Korea: NHK

(Bloomberg) -- U.S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed that the two nations and South Korea must maintain unity in dealing with North Korea launching ballistic missiles.

The two spoke by phone for about 45 minutes, exchanging views on Kim Jong Un's regime and Syria, Japan's national broadcaster NHK reported on Sunday in Tokyo. Abe said he's watching closely how China will react to the North Korea issue, according to NHK, after Trump held his first meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Florida.

“We completely agreed that it's very important for Japan and U.S. to cooperate and work together closely and the unity among Japan, U.S. and South Korea is important,” Abe told reporters, according to NHK.

The phone conversation between Trump and Abe took place as a ballistic missile test by North Korea drew condemnation from countries in the region and a U.S. missile strike in Syria ratcheted up tensions with Russia. Trump also explained to Abe that he conducted the missile attack in order to prevent chemical weapons from being used again after many civilians including women and children were harmed, according to Kyodo news service.

To contact the reporter on this story: Yoshiaki Nohara in Tokyo at ynohara1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Brett Miller at bmiller30@bloomberg.net, Andreea Papuc