
SINGAPORE (Kyodo) -- Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said he reached an agreement Sunday with his U.S. and South Korean counterparts to work in tandem to urge North Korea to take concrete steps toward denuclearization, less than 10 days before a planned summit between Washington and Pyongyang.
But Onodera shied away from specifying whether the three allies confirmed the importance of exerting "pressure" on the North during his hour-long talk with U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and South Korean Defense Minister Song Young Moo in Singapore.