The summit between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump may have been a success in demonstrating the solid Japan-U.S. alliance in the face of North Korea's security threat as well as the personal rapport between the two leaders. They confirmed the shared strategy of maximizing international pressures on North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs. It will likely take more than that, however, to defuse regional tensions raised by Pyongyang's repeated provocations. During his Asian tour, Trump is urged to also enlist the cooperation of China and Russia in exploring a diplomatic solution to the crisis.

Trump's first visit to Japan since taking office in January, on the first leg of his 12-day tour of Asia, was his fifth direct meeting with Abe. They played golf together and had a steak dinner upon the U.S. president's arrival here on Sunday. Abe apparently believes that deepening personal ties with the U.S. president contributes to beefing up the bilateral security alliance that serves as a check against the North Korean threat as well as China's assertive maritime behavior. Trump, who called Japan a "treasured partner and crucial ally" of the United States as he spoke before American troops at Yokota Air Base, said after his talks with Abe on Monday that "I don't think we've ever been closer to Japan than we are right now."

In sharing the Trump administration's emphasis on pressure to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear and missile ambitions, Abe has thrown his support behind the U.S. policy that all options, including military strikes, are on the table in the effort to denuclearize North Korea — a position that the prime minister reiterated following his talks with Trump.