JAPAN/NORTH KOREA/SUMMIT/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “A month before President Trump is scheduled to meet for a second time with Kim Jong-un of North Korea, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan appealed to Mr. Trump to keep him in the loop as he seeks a disarmament deal with the North. Mr. Abe, speaking in an interview Wednesday [1-23-19] at the World Economic Forum, said he was confident that he was in sync with Mr. Trump on North Korea. But privately, Japanese officials and analysts worry that the American president will make a deal with Mr. Kim that leaves Japan vulnerable to a missile strike from the North…The first time Mr. Trump and Mr. Kim met, in Singapore last June, the two leaders agreed to a vague commitment to work toward the ‘complete denuclearization of North Korea.’ Left unsettled was the status of North Korea’s arsenal of medium- and short-range missiles, which are capable of striking Japan.”
–Mark Landler, “As Next Trump-Kim Summit Nears, Japan Worries U.S. Will Leave It in the Dark,” The New York Times online, January 23, 2019