For Japan, any deeper military cooperation among China, North Korea and Russia is seen as almost certain to increase the threats it faces, given that it is surrounded by all three countries.
“Japan’s burden of surveillance in the Sea of Japan will increase considerably,” a senior Japanese Defence Ministry official said.
Another government source described potential cooperation between China, Russia and North Korea as “a geopolitical game changer”.
Beijing has previously called for the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, but a document released after the Xi-Kim meeting made no mention of denuclearisation.
“We cannot rule out the possibility that China has changed its stance and now tolerates North Korea’s possession of nuclear weapons,” a Japanese government source said.
A Japanese Foreign Ministry official said the omission had not come as a surprise: “It was within expectations that the document would have no reference to denuclearisation.”
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
