At a news conference on May 10, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga commented on the joint declaration issued on May 9 after the Japan-China-ROK summit failing to mention concrete steps toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. He said: “There was a clear passage on cooperating to resolve the North Korea issues in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions.”

To the question whether this would not send a mistaken message to North Korea, Suga replied: “Such criticism is completely off the mark.”