North Korea trying to woo Japan with leaders’ summit
Tokyo: North Korea has been tempting Japan with the prospect of a visit to Pyongyang by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for the first leaders’ summit in 20 years – but with a massive catch.
Tokyo must accept Pyongyang’s weapons programme and treat its abductions of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s as a resolved issue for such a summit to be held, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) cited leader Kim Jong Un’s influential sister Kim Yo Jong as saying on March 25.
Mr Kishida has said he was open to meeting Mr Kim with no preconditions. But Ms Kim rubbished the idea of any summit unless Tokyo first agrees to terms that it has long considered non-negotiable. Implying that a summit cannot be a mere photo op to boost Mr Kishida’s awful domestic support, she was quoted as saying: “Just because the Prime Minister wants to, does not mean he can meet our country’s leadership.”
In a separate development that goes against the grain of tentatively warmer ties, North Korea suddenly scrapped a World Cup qualifier against Japan that was to have been played at Pyongyang’s Kim Il Sung Stadium on March 26. Japan won the reverse tie in Tokyo 1-0 on March 21. Mr Kishida’s approval ratings at home are languishing, and critics believe an unlikely meeting with Mr Kim would allow him to portray himself as a consummate diplomat.
This could give him a quick boost in support, as time is running out before a ruling Liberal Democratic Party leadership contest that will be called in September 2024. Observers said the Prime Minister faces difficult choices: He may give an inch, but sentiment will turn even further against him if Mr Kim ends up taking a mile. “The big question is whether Kishida has the strong determination and conviction to assert that – despite all the concerns and risks – it was important to advance the relationship between Japan and North Korea at this point,” Professor Atsuhito Isozaki, an expert on North Korea issues at Japan’s Keio University, told The Straits
Times.
A senior government official told the Asahi newspaper that North Korea was trying to excite Japan, adding: “We should be careful not to overreact, or else we would play into their hands.”