TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Britain and Japan will step up the pace of sanctions against nuclear-armed North Korea after its “outrageous” firing of a missile over Japan, British Prime Minister Theresa May said Thursday.
“We condemn North Korea in the strongest words possible for a reckless act which was a clear violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions,” May told a press briefing during an official visit to Japan.
“In response to this illegal action, Prime Minister (Shinzo) Abe and I had agreed to work together and with others in the international community to strengthen pressure against North Korea including by increasing the pace of sanctions.”
Last week, Japan expanded its own sanctions against the North, after a similar United States move.
Britain wants new United Nations sanctions against North Korea that would target guest workers sent mostly to Russia and China, and whose wages are a source of revenue for Pyongyang.
In the last two months, Pyongyang has carried out its first two successful tests of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), apparently bringing much of the US mainland into range.
On Tuesday, it fired a missile over Japanese territory.
Japan’s leader said Thursday that North Korea’s missile tests proved it is now a “global threat.”
“It is not only a threat for Japan or Asia but it is a global threat,” Abe said.
“Almost all of Europe is within striking range of North Korean intercontinental ballistic missiles,” he added.
May pointed to the key role that China, the North’s chief ally, can play in pushing for change.
“Now we need to ensure it’s not just words of condemnation, but that action is taken, and China does have a particular position in this,” she said.
“They have leverage on North Korea, and I believe we should be encouraging China to exercise that leverage.”
Earlier Thursday, Beijing slammed a report that suggested the US, Japan and Britain were planning fresh punitive measures against the North, saying calls for sanctions were “destructive” and that those measures alone “cannot fundamentally resolve the issue.”
‘Transparency and predictability’
May attended Japan’s top security meeting Thursday, reportedly only the second foreign leader to attend a meeting of the National Security Council after Australia’s then-prime minister Tony Abbott in 2014.
The Council, which was created at the end of 2013, consists of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and key ministers.
The UN Security Council on Tuesday unanimously condemned North Korea after the launch of its missile, which flew over Japanese territory before crashing into the Pacific, but it stopped short of issuing fresh punitive measures against the regime.
Earlier Thursday, May visited a naval base on the outskirts of Tokyo with Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera before attending a business forum and the security meeting.
May arrived in Japan Wednesday with an eye to soothing Brexit fears and pushing ahead on early free-trade talks with the world’s number three economy.
More than 1,000 Japanese companies do business in Britain, employing some 140,000 local people with many using Britain as a staging post to do business in Europe.
But uncertainty surrounding Brexit negotiations has spurred some Japanese firms that have set up shop in Britain, or established European headquarters there, to look for alternative locations.
“I have asked Prime Minister May to minimize the impact on Japanese companies and to ensure transparency and predictability,” Abe said Thursday.
The two leaders also discussed a possible Britain-Japan free trade agreement. But analysts said there would not likely be much progress until Japan and the EU wrap up a nearly-finalized trade deal, and details of Brexit are worked out.
May is due to meet Emperor Akihito on Friday before leaving Japan.
