Tokyo and Washington agreed Tuesday to continue to exert pressure on Pyongyang and beef up their trilateral cooperation with Seoul in reining in its nuclear and missile programs, while stressing that dialogue remained out of the question for the moment.
In a 20-minute telephone conference initiated by the Japan side in response to North Korea's Sunday launch of a missile that would have been the longest-range yet if flown on a normal, instead of a "lofted," trajectory, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also agreed to call on China to play a greater role in dealing with Pyongyang.
"What is important now is pressure," a senior Foreign Ministry official told reporters on customary condition of anonymity.
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