THREATS FROM NORTH KOREA: Duterte backs Japan in countering North Korea

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte condemned North Korea's nuclear ambition and backed Japan's moves to counter threats from the rogue state amid heightened tensions.

Duterte had has his fourth bilateral talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines of the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Manila.

At the meeting, Duterte, who chairs this year’s ASEAN meetings, assured Abe of his support in Tokyo’s campaign against North Korea. “I can assure you that in the matter of the interest of your country and mine, we are supporting you against what North Korea is doing,” Duterte told Abe. “We have said it several times already in the past that it is not to the interest of North Korea to swagger around and threaten the world, of keeping us hostage with the atomic weapons,” he added.

Despite remote possibilities of the Philippines getting hit by a North Korean missile, Duterte told Abe that Manila is with Japan in pressuring the hermit state to stop its nuclear and missile program.

“We condemn his several launching of missiles. It is bad. It puts a strain on everybody, not only in Japan but all over the world. And he should realize that he’d be responsible for ending life in this planet if his mind goes out of control,” Duterte said.

“That is why we are persuading him, maybe pleading him to stop the aggressive posture... The Philippines is about too far but, you know, nobody will save us from a holocaust if it happens,” he added.

At the ASEAN Regional Forum last August, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-Ho said Washington's hostile policy and nuclear threat towards Pyongyang is the root cause of the problem amid concerns from several foreign ministers.

The foreign minister stressed that North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons is a war deterrence to end the threat and to prevent the military invasion of the US.

The statement came days after ASEAN foreign ministers released a joint statement expressing grave concerns over North Korea's testing of ballistic missiles for the past month.

Source: The Philippine Star