The two leaders spoke Monday as US officials were in North Korea and Singapore discussing arrangements for prospective talks
U. S. President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are to meet before a planned summit between Trump and North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, according to Japanese officials.
Trump and Abe spoke Monday as American officials were in North Korea and Singapore to discuss arrangements for the prospective talks.
The White House has not responded to VOA queries about the Trump-Abe discussion.
The phone conversation took place before Trump went to Arlington National Cemetery for a Memorial Day ceremony. There the president made no reference to the situation on the Korean peninsula in his 22-minute scripted remarks.
Nearly 34,000 Americans died as a result of hostile action in the three-year war on the peninsula. Hostilities ceased in 1953 with an armistice but no peace treaty has ever been signed.
It is unclear when or where Trump and Abe will meet before the anticipated Singapore summit, which the U. S. president has said in recent days is likely to occur on June 12 after he declared last Thursday that the summit would not be held on that day.
Both Trump and Abe are set to attend the Group of Seven economic summit June 8-9 in Canada.
U. S. and North Korean officials met again Monday at the Korean demilitarized zone.
Sung Kim, the U. S. ambassador to the Philippines and former envoy to South Korea, is leading the U. S. delegation at the preparation talks. Reports say the meetings are expected to last until Tuesday.
Meanwhile, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin and others from theadministration took a flight Sunday to Singapore.
“They traveled to Singapore to focus on logistics preparations,” a White House official confirmed to VOA News on Monday.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in could also be going to Singapore next month for a three-way summit with his U.
