Biden says he backs Japan’s outreach to North Korea and says he’s still open to talks with Kim

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden says Japan’s attempts to set up a leader-to-leader summit with North Korea is “a good thing,” and reiterated his administration’s willingness for its own talks without preconditions. Fumio Kishida and Biden were using the Japanese leader’s official visit to Washington to spotlight strengthened defense and intelligence ties to address threats from North Korea and China. The U.S. blessing on Wednesday of the potential talks between Japan and North Korea comes as its own efforts to reopen a line of communication with Pyongyang have gone unrequited. “We welcome the opportunity of our allies to initiate dialogue with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” Biden says. “As I’ve said many times, we’re open to dialogue ourselves without preconditions with the DPRK.”