US President Donald Trump said Friday the “problem of an increasingly belligerent” North Korea would be “solved”, as he met his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe just before the start of the G7 summit.

“It’s a big problem, it’s a world problem,” he said in the Sicilian town of Taormina, just weeks after he called North Korea leader Kim Jong-Un a “madman with nuclear weapons.”

The issue of North Korea’s missile and nuclear tests will be discussed in joint meetings with the other six heads of leading industrialized countries, Trump said.

“It will be solved, you can bet on that,” he said before going into closed-door talks with Abe, without giving further details.

“The issue of North Korea is a grave threat not only to East Asia but also to the world,” Abe told reporters before leaving Tokyo, urging the G7 to act “resolutely”.

Pyongyang has launched a series of missiles this year, including a Hwasong-12 intermediate-range projectile this month which the North claimed was capable of carrying a heavy nuclear warhead, fuelling tensions with Washington.

It carried out two atomic tests last year, insisting it needs nuclear weapons to defend itself against the threat of invasion.

Source: AFP