The United States’ top diplomat was in Tokyo on Thursday to reassure allies that Washington stands with them in the face of the accelerating missile threat from North Korea. State Department officials insist that the focus of the trip will be North Korea and efforts to rebalance commerce without provoking a trade war with the Chinese giant. Acting spokesman Mark Toner told reporters this week that efforts to convince China to pressure North Korea were the “looming challenge” in trans-Pacific relations. “He’s going to have an opportunity at every stop to talk about next steps or what we do now, with respect to North Korea,” he said. China is perhaps the last country with significant leverage over North Korea, which has ignored several rounds of UN-backed sanctions targeting its banned weapons program.

Source: Manila Times March 16, 2017 02:48 UTC