U.S. joins with S Korea, Japan in bid to deter North Korea

I don’t want my country to get involved in this, Mr. Obama. Why don’t you go back where the conflict started? The Korean war was a proxy war between the US and Soviet Union and the latter had gone. Then, it is the US, South Korea and North Korea that have primary responsibility to deal with the aftermath. Japan has no military base in Korean peninsula and neither China nor Russia, either.

Please don’t make it complicated, Mr. President.

I don’t want my country to get involved in this, Mr. Obama.

Ha ha ha ha. You do understand that if NoKo nukes anyone, it's not going to be their neighbors in the south, and it's not going to be the U.S. (they don't have the reach). Guess where those missiles are pointed, Mr. Watanabe.

Indeed true or not Japan is considered "a lap dog of the evil imperialist americans" by North Korea.

Again why I think its crucial for South Korea and Japan to have a much better relationship, China clearly doesn't want to play its part as they need the status quo, they want a buffer between them and american allies and don't want millions of staving refugees if anything does go down.

@Triumvere

they don't have the reach

Ha ha ha. You don't understand NK's technology. They will do within a year or so. Are you American? S.Korea is too close and the US is too far to launch a missile. Then, they will target Japan. Is this what you meant? It sounds really silly theory.

Excellent move by the US, Japan & South Korea. The region is tense with unscrupulous people. Asia is now the hot spot with belligerents - they will watch the incoming US President.

TPP for the military-industrial complex?

"Get Dennis Rodman on the phone. Now!"

Park and Abe will never cooperate, unless big daddy Obama orders it. This picture is pure eloquence

Begging your pardon, Watanabe-san; perhaps I did not explain myself with sufficient clarity.

1) North Korea will not nuke the U.S. Don't get me wrong, North Korea would love to be able to strike the U.S., but it doesn't currently have the capability. Now, clearly you have more faith in North Korean ballistic missile technology than I do, but that shouldn't be of much comfort to you. You see, what it does have, are medium range ballistic missiles of the sort which, once perfected, should be able to hit most potential targets in Japan:

http://asia.nikkei.com/Politics-Economy/International-Relations/A-North-Korean-missile-strike-Japan-should-prepare

In fact, North Korea just fired off one of these today. Furthermore, while I'm pretty sure that North Korea would only actually use a nuke if it were truly desperate, I'm also sure that if they ever decided to hit the US, they'd simultaneously take the opportunity to hit Japan. More on that momentarily. For now, lets just say if they can hit us, they can - and will - hit you as well.

2) North Korea will not nuke South Korea The North's greatest goal, aside from preservation of the Kim regime, is reunification with S. Korea under DPRK rule. Given that context, I'm pretty sure that nuking S. Korea is the last thing N. Korea would want to do. The legacy of nuclear weaponry is so toxic that it would severely undermine any attempt to legitimize DPRK rule over the peninsula. Besides, N. Korea doesn't need to nuke S. Korea - they already have enough conventional artillery trained on Seoul to level the entire city. Dropping a nuke on the place would be counter-productive over-kill.

3) North Korea will nuke Japan The reason I found your post so (literally laugh-out-loud) humorous, was your erroneous assumption that Japan was somehow not "involved" in the current conflict, and that anything Obama said or did could possibly effect that (un)involvement. As NZ2011 correctly states, N. Korea views Japan as "a lap dog of the evil imperialist Americans"; however, the full truth is actually worse than that. The legitimacy of the entire Kim dynasty is founded on hating Japan; Kim Il-sung's (much exaggerated) exploits as a anti-Japanese guerrilla fighter are the literal cornerstone of the Great Leader's legend, which is used to justify Kim family absolute rule. But it gets even worse: collective hatred of Japan is one of the things N. Korea is relying on to help unite the bitterly Koreas under DPRK rule. North Korean children are taught daily in school to hate you and your country, Watanabe-san, and that hatred plays a key role in North Korea's past, present, and imagined glorious future. You could scrap the entire U.S./Japan alliance and kick every U.S. serviceman off the archipelago, and it wouldn't change a damned thing.

So the joke is that you are already involved - involved so far over your head that you apparently cannot see it.

TL;DR: You are absolutely right, Watanabe-san: S.Korea is too close and the U.S. too far. But Japan? Just right, I'm afraid.

North Korea never invaded Japan. North Korea never colonized Japan.

It's the other way around.

So why must PM Abe insists on treating North Korea as an enemy?

Tokyo should have an independent North Korean policy that promotes mutual benefits.

Nippon must not Cubanize its North Korean policy.

I bet Abe scratched his head many times when Pres. Obama visited Cuba and dance the tango with Pres. Raul Castro.

Maybe it's time for PM Abe to go to Pyongyang and dance the 'Gangnam' style with Kim Jung Un?

Barack will be jealous for sure!

Christopher GlenApr. 01, 2016 - 11:40PM JST Park and Abe will never cooperate, unless big daddy Obama orders it. This picture is pure eloquence

They already are. It may hurt your feelings but South Korea has openly blamed China for the tensions in the South China Sea. Looks like China made a mistake complaining about THAAD which the South Koreans only need to protect themselves from China's pet dog North Korea.

Japan might be enjoying N Korea shooting missiles to S Korea. South hasn't complained 1/1 Yasukuni SHrine visiting this year.