Mattis: US-North Korea Talks Will Not Shake Ties With Japan

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the possible talks between the United States and North Korea would not change the strong relationship the United States has with Japan.

Mattis met Friday with his Japanese counterpart, Itsunori Onodera, at the Pentagon, saying, "This is a mutually beneficial alliance between two democratic nations that trust each other. Nothing is going to shake that."

WATCH: Mattis on Strength of US-Japan Relationship

Onodera said the "ironclad US-Japan alliance" must work with the international community to make North Korea abandon all weapons of mass destruction "in a complete, verifiable and irreversible manner."

The United States and South Korea are planning separate summits with North Korea over banning nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula. No date has yet been set for the talks involving the United States, while the two Koreas plan to meet April 27.

WATCH:Onodera: Pressure on North Korea Must Be Maintained

On Friday, the two Koreas opened a hotline between their leaders, a week before their planned summit in the Demilitarized Zone. The hotline is the latest step in intense diplomatic activity on and around the Korean Peninsula, initiated with the Winter Olympics in the South.

On Thursday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said North Korea was not imposing conditions on upcoming summits with him and U.S. President Donald Trump.

Moon told corporate executives in Seoul, "They have not attached any conditions that the U.S. cannot accept, such as the withdrawal of American troops from South Korea." He said, "All they are talking about is the end of hostile policies against North Korea, followed by a guarantee of security."

Moon said, "I don't think denuclearization has different meanings for South and North Korea. The North is expressing a will for a complete denuclearization."

Long pause in tests

North Korea has defended its nuclear development and missile tests, in defiance of U.N. Security Council mandates, as a deterrent to what it sees as a threat from the United States, which has 28,500 troops stationed in South Korea. But it has not tested a missile since late November and has not conducted a nuclear test since last September.

Trump struck an optimistic note this week about the possibility of a denuclearized North Korea.

"As I've said before, there is a bright path available to North Korea when it achieves denuclearization in a complete and verifiable and irreversible way," Trump said.

But he cautioned that if his talks with Kim did not go the way he hoped, he was willing to walk away.

VOA national security correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.

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