The United States and Japan have agreed to drop a 2014 deadline for building a new airstrip on Okinawa and transferring about 8,000 US Marines from that Japanese island to Guam. They vowed to complete the projects "at the earliest possible date after 2014." Security Consultative Committee talks were held between the two allies, who also agreed to work for the denuclearization of North Korea, and deal with other problems posed by Pyongyang, including ballistic missiles, crime and humanitarian concerns. The United States and Japan had agreed in 2006 to shift the US Marines' Futenma airbase in Okinawa to a less crowded area on the island, which is host to about half of the 47,000 US troops in Japan. But successive Tokyo governments have yet to win support for that plan from local residents of Okinawa, who associate US bases with noise, pollution and crime. Reuters