U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday (April 15) during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe the region was united against North Korea's missile programme.

Kerry addressed students at Tokyo Institute of Technology where he laid out the U.S. policy in the region and highlighted how nations such as North Korea destabilise the entire area.

"One thing is certain, we are united. There can be no confusion on this point. The North's dangerous missile programme threatens not only North Korea's neighbours but it threatens its own people," he said.

Kerry said that the United States prefers to negotiate, a chance he also made clear in a meeting with Japan's foreign minister Fumio Kishida on Sunday (April 14), but that before that could happen that North Korea must hold up its obligations.

"But the burden is on Pyongyang. North Korea must take meaningful steps to show that it will honour commitments that it has already made and it has to observe law