Abe in last-ditch move for influence

Japan PM seeks assurances ahead of summit, critics pour cold water

With the highly-anticipated summit between the US President Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, just four days away, Japan is busy oiling the wheels of diplomacy.

Before traveling to Canada for the G7 summit, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was scheduled to meet Trump on Thursday, as part of a trip largely expected to be a last-ditch attempt to lobby Trump to bring up the issues of complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization and the issue of Japanese nationals allegedly abducted by the DPRK in the 1970s and 80s.

"I want to make sure to be on the same page with President Trump ahead of the first ever US-DPRK summit so we can push forward nuclear and missile issues, and most importantly the abduction problem, and make for a successful summit," Abe told reporters before leaving for the airport.

It was Abe's seventh meeting with Trump, and the second in around two months.

Abe is also mulling sending his Foreign Minister Taro Kono on Saturday to Singapore to seek the city-state's cooperation to share information on the meeting. Also, Abe is seeking a meeting with the DPRK leader after his summit with Trump, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan made a two-day official visit to Pyongyang on Thursday, according to Kyodo News.

Jon Taylor, a professor of political science at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, said Abe hastily asked for a meeting before the G7 and the Kim-Trump summit is aimed at getting assurances from Trump that he will not make any deals that could "decouple" Japan from the US's nuclear and missile deterrence commitments.

Taylor said Abe also wants to remind the United States that Trump's meeting with Kim could have on Japan's regional interests, and expecting the US can raise the fate of the allegedly abducted Japanese citizens.