Japan and South Korea are divided about how to deal with North Korea, Graham Ong-Webb, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore has told Al Jazeera’s James Bays.

“The two countries which are integral to the final resolution” fall on “different sides of Trump’s policy position, which is a two-front approach to North Korea: maximum pressure and engagement”, Ong-Webb said.

Japan believes maximum pressure should be kept on North Korea. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe “feels that we should only release the valve on sanctions when the North Koreans have fully delivered on these potential promises that they have to make about denuclearisation”.

He added that South Korea is “taking a softer tone to things. They feel that engagement is more important and if that means having to release the valve a little bit to incentivise and reward the North Koreans along the way then that should be the way forward”.