Japan’s Shinzo Abe backs Donald Trump on dealing with Kim Jong-un

Japan has backed Donald Trump’s policy to consider all options to rein in the regime of Kim Jong-un.

Donald Trump chats with Japan’s Emperor Akihito, left, during a brief visit to the Imperial Palace in Tokyo yesterday.

The “era of strategic patience” with North Korea is over, Donald Trump has declared, after Japan backed his policy to consider all options to rein in the regime of Kim Jong-un.

The US President issued the warning yesterday while standing alongside Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who said “all ­options are on the table” in dealing with the North Korean threat — including military force.

“For more than 20-some years, the international community has attempted dialogue with North Korea. Now is not the time for dialogue,” Mr Abe said.

Japan would work with the US, he said, “in closely collaborating with the international community to enhance pressure to the maximum level”.

Mr Abe said it was “incumbent on China to play an even greater role” on the North Korea issue.

On the North Korean ballistic missiles fired over Japan in recent months, Mr Trump said Mr Abe “will shoot them out of the sky when he completes the purchase of new US military equipment”.

“He is going to be purchasing massive amounts of military equipment, as he should,” Mr Trump said, adding: “The era of strategic patience is over.”

Mr Abe said the two countries would co-operate on missile defence, and that if it were necessary to shoot down a missile “of course we will do that”.

Mr Abe said that “no one likes conflict. I don’t like it, Mr Trump neither, but North Korea continues its provocations against the international community.”

He promised to announce ­additional sanctions today, including freezing the assets of 35 North Korean entities and individuals.

In a pre-recorded US TV ­interview broadcast after his ­arrival in Japan, Mr Trump took a different tone, saying he would “certainly be open” to meeting the North Korean dictator.

“I would sit down with anybody. I don’t think it’s strength or weakness, I think sitting down with people is not a bad thing … we’ll see where it goes,” the ­President said.

He met members of the families of Japanese people abducted up to 40 years ago by North Korean agents. Only five of at least 17 ­abductees have been allowed to return home.

Mr Trump said Kim “would send them back, I think it would be the start of something — just the start of something very special”.

The President said during yesterday’s press conference that the trade deficit with China “has to come down”.

“The problem we have with China is ... it’s been a very unfair trade situation. Our trade deficit is massive,” he said.

He vowed to level the commercial playing field for US companies, for which he said he had already set the “legal foundation” through anti-dumping and other cases.

He told business leaders earlier that Japan, with which the US has its second-biggest trade deficit — $90 billion in 2016 — had been “winning” for decades at the expense of the US.

“We want fair and open trade, but right now our trade with Japan is not fair and open. So we will have to negotiate, and we will do this in a friendly way,” he said.

He received a welcoming ceremony in central Tokyo, including a brief audience with Emperor Akihito, his bow consisting of a slight nod of his head, avoiding the pitfall of former president Barack Obama, who was criticised at home for his deep bow to the ­monarch.

Mr Trump and his wife, Melania, had dinner the night before with Mr Abe and his wife, Akie. Mr Trump said he and Mr Abe “like each other, and our countries like each other”.

“I don’t think we’ve ever been closer to Japan than we are right now,” Mr Trump said.

During their press conference, Mr Abe reciprocated: “I believe that there have never been such close bonds intimately connecting both nations in more than half a century.”

Starting his first Asian tour in Tokyo underlined to the world, Mr Abe said, the unshakeable nature of the US-Japan alliance.

“Thank you, Donald,” the Prime Minister said.

Additional reporting: Agencies