Japan must avoid bilateral trade talks with USA: finance minister Taro Aso

The dramatic visit to Beijing this week by Kim Jong Un for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping is another development that appears to reflect North Korea's priorities shown in the briefing paper.

"India-Japan relations are stronger than before, a major reason for this is Prime Minister Modi's and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's friendship".

His finance minister, Taro Aso, echoed that view and said some of the responsibility for the trade imbalance rested with the United States.

Japanese government officials say North Korea may also hold a summit with Russian Federation.

The document is the first clear sign of interest by Pyongyang in a Japan-North Korea summit meeting after Kim Jong Un took over the leadership in December 2011.

"The Japanese government has expressed a wish to host a leaders meeting, via the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan", or Chongryon, Pyongyang's de facto embassy in Japan, the Asahi quoted the briefing papers as saying. Summits with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and U.S. President Donald Trump are being planned for April and May, respectively.

He said this in reaction to Un's surprise visit to China on Wednesday. The two sides are meeting for the ninth India-Japan Strategic Dialogue, instituted in 2007 as an annual dialogue held alternately in Delhi and Tokyo. Kono said in an interview Tuesday Japan was closely watching preparations for the North-South Korean summit and the Trump-Kim meeting.

Other officials say direct talks with North Korea will eventually be necessary to resolve the issue of the abduction of Japanese nationals by that country. Bilateral relations have been strengthened in diverse sectors in recent years, the MEA added. Tokyo suspects that hundreds more may have been taken.