N. Korea rejects ‘any contact’ with Japan
SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister said on Tuesday Pyongyang would reject “any contact or negotiations” with Japan, just a day ater she said Tokyo’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had requested a summit with her brother.
Relations between the two countries are historically strained, including by a long-running kidnapping dispute and North Korea’s banned weapons programmes, but Kishida has recently expressed a desire to improve ties, which Pyongyang has hinted it is not opposed to.
Last year, Kishida said he was willing to meet Kim “without any conditions,” saying Tokyo was willing to resolve all issues, including the abduction by North Korean agents of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s, which remains an emotive issue in Japan.
Kim Yo Jong -- who is one of the regime’s key spokespeople -- said on Monday that Kishida had requested a summit with Pyongyang’s leader, adding a meeting was unlikely without a policy shit by Tokyo.
But on Tuesday, she said Pyongyang would reject any contact with Japan, citing Tokyo’s lack of “courage” for “new” North Korea-japan relations, including over its stance on the abduction issue and North Korea’s military programmes.
North Korea “has clearly understood once again the atitude of Japan and, accordingly, the DPRK side will pay no atention to and reject any contact and negotiations with the Japanese side,” Kim Yo Jong said, according to Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency.
“The DPRK-JAPAN summit is not a mater of concern to the DPRK,” she added, referring to the North by its official name.
Kishida said Tuesday that he was aware of media reports on Kim Yo Jong’s comments, but would “refrain from commenting on each of these remarks.” “Japan will continue to make efforts to resolve the various issues with North Korea in accordance with our existing policy,” he said.
North Korea admited in 2002 that it had sent agents to kidnap 13 Japanese people in the 1970s and 1980s who were used to train spies in Japanese language and customs.
The abductions remain a potent and emotional issue in Japan and suspicions persist that many more were abducted than have been officially recognised.
Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters on Monday that North Korea’s “claim that the abduction issue has already been resolved is totally unacceptable.”