N Korea in U-turn on talks with Japanese premier

NORTH Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister said yesterday that Pyongyang would reject “any contact or negotiations” with Japan, just a day after 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 – 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 shift by Tokyo.

But yesterday, she said Pyongyang would reject any contact with Japan, citing Tokyo’s lack of “courage” for “new” North Korea-Japan relations, including its stance on the abductions and North Korea’s military programmes.

North Korea “has clearly understood the attitude of Japan, so the DPRK side will pay no attention to and reject any contact and negotiations with the Japanese side,” Kim Yo Jong said.

“The DPRK-Japan summit is not a matter of concern to the DPRK,” she added, referring to the North by its official name. Kishida said yesterday he was aware of media reports on Kim Yo Jong’s comments, but would “refrain from commenting. Japan will continue to make efforts to resolve the issues with North Korea”, he said.

North Korea admitted in 2002 that it had sent agents to kidnap 13 Japanese people in the 1970s and 1980s training spies in Japanese language and customs. The abductions remain an emotional issue in Japan; suspicions persist that many more were abducted than have been officially recognised.

Analysts said North Korea’s abrupt reversal could be a negotiating ploy designed to “enhance leverage” in any future talks.