U.S., Japanese leaders agree to expand sanctions against North Korea for its continued development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles

President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed on Friday to expand sanctions against North Korea for its continued development of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, the White House said in a statement.

UPDATE: Pyongyang has carried out repeated missile tests in the past year, prompting an array of countries to demand tougher economic sanctions to push the isolated country towards dismantling its weapons programmes.

Meeting before a Group of Seven summit, Trump and Abe dedicated most of their discussions to the issue, aides said.

“President Trump and Prime Minister Abe agreed their teams would cooperate to enhance sanctions on North Korea, including by identifying and sanctioning entities that support North Korea’s ballistic missile and nuclear programs,” the White House said in a statement.

“They also agreed to further strengthen the alliance between the United States and Japan, to further each country’s capability to deter and defend against threats from North Korea,” it said.

Trump has said he will prevent North Korea from being able to hit the United States with a nuclear missile, a capability experts say Pyongyang could have some time after 2020.

“It is very much on our minds…It’s a big problem, it’s a world problem and it will be solved. At some point it will be solved. You can bet on that,” Trump told reporters, sitting alongside Abe.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson this month called on countries all over the world to implement existing U.N. sanctions on North Korea’s nuclear weapons and missile programs, adding that the U.S. administration would be willing to use secondary sanctions to target foreign companies that continue to do business with Pyongyang.

Most of North Korea’s trade is with its ally China, and so any hard-hitting secondary sanctions would likely target Chinese firms.

Speaking in Beijing, a senior U.S. State Department official said on Friday that China realised it has limited time to rein in North Korea through negotiations and that it was open to further sanctions.

Susan Thornton, the acting assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs told reporters the United States was looking at discussing with China a new U.N. Security Council resolution on measures to reduce delays in any response to further nuclear tests or other provocations from the North.

North Korea’s growing nuclear and missile threat is seen as a major security challenge for Trump and Abe both. Trump has vowed to prevent the country from being able to hit the United States with a nuclear missile, a capability experts say Pyongyang could have some time after 2020.

U.S. says China realises limited time to negotiate with N.Korea

China has realised it has limited time to rein in North Korea’s nuclear programme through negotiations and is open to further sanctions against Pyongyang, a senior U.S. State Department official said on Friday.

Susan Thornton, the acting assistant secretary for east Asian and Pacific affairs told a news briefing in Beijing that China understood that the U.S. viewed the North Korea situation as an urgent “time-limited problem set”.

“So they know now that they don’t have, I think, as much time to try to bring the North Koreans to the table to get their calculus changed and get them to the negotiating table,” she said. “And I think that has lent some urgency to their measures.”

Pyongyang has conducted dozens of missile tests, the most recent last Sunday, and tested two nuclear bombs since the start of 2016, in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions. It says the programme is necessary to counter U.S. aggression.

Thornton said the United States was looking at discussing with China a new U.N. Security Council resolution on pre-negotiated measures to reduce delays in any response to further nuclear tests or other provocations from the North.

While China believes sanctions against North Korea “don’t work overnight”, Thornton said there were no indications Beijing had gone cold on potentially implementing more of them against Pyongyang.

“Their calculus about how much pressure to impose on North Korea is related to their tolerance for potential instability, which is low, I would say,” she said.

Asked about Thornton’s comments, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China supports the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula through talks and strictly implements U.N. Security Council resolutions.

“We always maintain that all relevant parties should display flexibility and move forward together to return to the negotiating table as soon as possible,” Lu told a daily news briefing.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Wednesday no one had the right to bring chaos to the Korean peninsula, a day after China pushed for full implementation of U.N. sanctions and called for dialogue.

The North has proudly publicised its plans to develop a missile capable of striking the United States and has ignored calls to halt its weapons programmes, even from ally China.

Even as Washington seeks greater Chinese cooperation on North Korea, a U.S navy warship sailed within 12 nautical miles of Mischief Reef in the disputed Spratly Islands in the first such manoeuvre since President Donald Trump took office.

It prompted an angry response from Beijing, which accused the United States of jeopardising a recent easing of tension between China and other claimants in the region, particularly the Philippines.

Thornton said Washington’s policy on the South China Sea had not changed under President Donald Trump, and it remained supportive of diplomatic processes.

“It doesn’t mean we are going to change our military presence or our security commitments in the region,” she said. “Those need to stay and they need to be there, and that will give confidence to the diplomatic process, we think.”

She said freedom of navigation operations were not the central part of U.S. policy in the South China Sea.

“But to the extent that we continue to do it, we don’t shy away from doing it, that’s a continuation,” she said.