Global Courant
Seoul, South Korea — North Korea said on Monday that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida offered to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “as soon as possible” but stressed that prospects for their country’s first summit in about two decades would depend on extent to which Tokyo tolerates and ignores its weapons program. the previous kidnappings of Japanese nationals.
Speaking at a parliamentary session, Kishida said a meeting with Kim is “crucial” to resolve the kidnapping issue, a major sticking point in bilateral ties, and that his government has used various channels to hold the summit.
Kim’s sister and senior official, Kim Yo Jong, said in a statement that Kishida recently used an unspecified channel to convey his view that he wants to meet Kim Jong Un in person “as soon as possible.”
She said there will be no breakthrough in North Korea-Japan relations as long as Kishida’s government delves into the kidnapping issue and interferes with the North’s “exercise of our sovereign right,” apparently referring to the country’s weapons testing activities North.
“The history of North Korea-Japan relations tells us that it is impossible to improve bilateral relations full of distrust and misunderstandings just with the idea of organizing a summit meeting,” Kim Yo Jong said, using the abbreviation of North’s official name is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“If Japan truly wants to improve bilateral relations and contribute to ensuring regional peace and stability as the DPRK’s closest neighbor, it is necessary for the country to make a political decision on a strategic option consistent with its overall interests” , she said.
In February, Kim Yo Jong issued a similar statement on bilateral ties, saying North Korea was open to improving relations with Japan and even invited Kishida to Pyongyang. But she said this would only be possible if Tokyo stops challenging North Korea’s legitimate right to self-defense and the kidnapping issue.
Some experts say North Korea is seeking to improve ties with Japan as a way to weaken the Tokyo-Seoul-Washington trilateral security partnership, while Kishida also wants to use possible progress on the kidnapping issue to boost his declining popularity at home.
North Korea’s advancing nuclear and missile arsenals pose a major security threat to Japan, as well as South Korea and the United States. The three countries have expanded their trilateral training exercises in response to the North’s provocative series of weapons tests since 2022. Japan and South Korea are two of America’s most important allies in the region, hosting about 80,000 U.S. troops on their soil.
North Korea and Japan have no diplomatic ties, and their relations are overshadowed by North Korea’s nuclear program, the kidnapping issue, and Japan’s colonization of the Korean Peninsula between 1910 and 1945. Japan’s colonial misconduct is also a source of repeated historical arguments between Tokyo and Seoul.
After years of denial, North Korea acknowledged during an unprecedented 2002 summit between Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un’s late father, and then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi that its agents had kidnapped thirteen Japanese, mainly to train spies in the Japanese language and culture. It allowed five of them to return to Japan that year, but said the others had died. Japan believes at least some of them are still alive, and believes hundreds of others have also been abducted.
In 2004, Koizumi made a second visit to North Korea and met Kim Jong Il again. That was the last summit between the leaders of the two countries.
North Korea and Japan were due to play a World Cup qualifier in Pyongyang on Tuesday, but FIFA, football’s governing body, said on Saturday it had canceled the match. North Korea recently said it could not host Japan and requested a neutral venue “due to unavoidable circumstances,” according to the Asian Football Confederation.
There are concerns that North Korea could further increase pressure on its rivals and intensify its weapons testing activities in what is an election year in both the United States and South Korea. Kim Jong Un has overseen a series of missile tests and other military exercises this year.
Earlier Monday, North Korean state media reported that Kim Jong Un oversaw a tank exercise and encouraged his armored forces to step up war preparations in light of rising tensions with South Korea.
While most analysts doubt Kim is actually preparing for war, South Korean officials have raised the possibility of smaller provocations in border regions, including the disputed western maritime border between the Koreas, which has been the scene of bloody clashes in recent years.
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Associated Press journalist Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo contributed to this report.
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