Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Friday that Japan will never tolerate a nuclear-armed North Korea. Abe, who built his career as a hardliner on North Korea, spoke ahead of the expected resumption of six-nation talks on ending the communist state’s nuclear arsenal. “Our country will never tolerate North Korea’s nuclear weapons development,” Abe said in a policy speech to parliament. “With a policy of pressure and dialogue, we will cooperate with the countries concerned to seek a concrete response from North Korea,” he said. North Korea tested its first atom bomb on October 9, days after Abe took office with a conservative agenda including revising the post-World War II pacifist constitution. Abe, despite his calls for a more assertive Japan, said the country was cooperating with the United States to build a missile defence shield. “By cooperating with the United States, we will work to hurriedly set up a system to protect our country from ballistic missiles,” Abe said. Japan feels a direct threat from North Korea, which fired a missile over its main island in 1998, prompting Tokyo and Washington to team up to build a missile defence shield.