Japan indicated on Tuesday it was resigned to the US removing North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, considerably softening what had been staunch opposition to the move.

Nobutaka Machimura, chief cabinet secretary, said Tokyo understood “the high possibility” that Washington would begin the process of delisting North Korea if, as hoped, Pyongyang declared its nuclear programmes on Thursday. He said removing it from the list of terrorist nations would not affect “close US-Japanese ties”.