The White House announced yesterday that on April 30th, U.S. President Barack Obama will be host to Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda in their first meeting since the situation over the North Korean missile launch. This will be the second time the two leaders meet one-on-one since Noda was elected last August. The White House spokesman says that they will hold discussions on regional and global issues, which include the security alliance between the two nations, as well as economic and trade issues. Surely one of the most important matters will be global security interests in the wake of North Korea’s recent actions.
Both Japan and the United States have participated in negotiations to end Pyongyang’s development of nuclear weapons. White North Korea claimed that their launch was nothing more than a satellite for science, the U.S., South Korea, and Japan all had intelligence that was actually a long-range weapons test. The U.N. Security Council warned North Korean leaders that if they went ahead with their launch, it would be in violation of international sanctions. The U.S. also warned that it would have to cancel any food aid sent to the country, a decision that Obama has said they will stick to.