North-South Korea agreement stirs diplomatic angst in Japan

Japan has maintained its call for "maximum pressure" on North Korea amid signs of easing the tension that began during the Winter Olympics in South Korea last month

An agreement between North and South Korea to hold a summit and signals about possible talks between North Korea and the United States is stirring concern in Japan about its diplomatic nightmare - being left out in the cold.

Signs of easing tension over North Korea’s nuclear and missile threats, greeted in Tokyo with scepticism, come as Japan faces a possible trade feud with the United States over steel and rocky ties with South Korea over their bitter history, including Japan’s 1910-1945 colonization of the peninsula.

“The main concern is that South Korea may have jumped too easily to a proposal by