Japanese PM Abe calls for ‘action now’ on North Korea's nuclear programme

United Nations, Sept 21: Saying that “all options are on the table,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took the podium of the United Nations General Assembly to call on world leaders to provide the necessary action now to curb the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s (DPRK) nuclear and missile programmes. “We consistently support the stance of the United States: that ‘all options are on the table’,” he told the Assembly’s 72nd annual general debate yesterday, voicing appreciation for the unanimous adoption on 11 September of the latest and most stringent of many UN Security Council resolutions, further intensifying sanctions against the DPRK. “But I must make an appeal to you. North Korea has already demonstrated its disregard of the resolutions by launching yet another missile. We must prevent the goods, funds, people, and technology necessary for nuclear and missile development from heading to North Korea,” he stressed, a UN News Centre release said. “What is necessary is action. Whether or not we can put an end to the provocations by North Korea is dependent upon the solidarity of the international community. There is not much time left. The resolution is nothing more than the beginning,” he stated. Mr Abe went through a litany of two decades of failed dialogue with the DPRK, which during all that time used the talks as the best means for deception and buying time. “We must make North Korea abandon all nuclear and ballistic missile programs in a complete, verifiable, and irreversible manner,” he said. “What is needed to do that is not dialogue, but pressure.” UNI