ASSISTANT SECRETARY CAMPBELL: Good morning everyone, our team had excellent meetings this morning in the Prime Minister’s office, in the Diet Headquarters, and now in the Foreign Ministry. I think we made good progress on upcoming high level diplomacy between our two countries. I think we’ve seen also progress at the United Nations on Security Council actions on North Korea. I think the United States and Japan are again demonstrating very close coordination in the midst of provocative actions with respect to North Korea. We will be continuing close work with Japan on every aspect of our Asia-Pacific strategy, including the force posture reviews, issues associated with the ASEAN Regional Forum, and other steps that are of critical importance to both Japan and the United States.
I can take a couple of questions if you’d like.
QUESTION: Yes, first question from Karube from Kyodo News. Could you be a little bit more specific on what you have agreed upon with your Japanese counterparts today? With regard to North Korea, have the United States and Japan already agreed whether to seek UN resolution or Presidential statement?
ASSISTANT SECRETARY CAMPBELL: I think first of all, in the process of the United Nations, I think you will see specific steps on Monday when the Security Council returns and I would refer you to developments in New York. All I can say is that there has been very close coordination between the United States and Japan, and I think what we have heard is satisfaction with how we have worked together and what indeed we have accomplished together. On the other matters associated with our security coordination, it’s still a work in progress, we’re still comparing perspectives, but we’ve made a lot of progress over the course of discussions yesterday and today, and I’m very confident that we will be able to come to an agreement on the way forward between the United States and Japan on issues associated with force realignment.
Thank you all very much.
