Japan’s premier is seeking a summit with Kim Jong-un, says North Korea

NORTH Korea has said Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has proposed a summit with leader Kim Jong-un.

North Korea stressed that prospects for their countries’ first summit in 20 years would depend on Tokyo tolerating its weapons programme and ignoring past abductions of Japanese nationals.

Mr Kishida said a meeting with

Mr Kim was “crucial” to resolve the abduction issue, a major sticking point in bilateral ties, and that his government had been using various channels to hold the summit.

Mr Kim’s sister and senior official Kim Yo Jong said Mr Kishida recently used an unspecified channel to convey his position that he wanted to meet Mr Kim in person “as soon as possible”.

She said there would be no breakthrough in North Korea-Japan relations as long as Mr Kishida’s government was engrossed in the abduction issue and interfered in the North’s “exercise of our sovereign right”, apparently referring to the North’s weapons-testing activities.

Ms Kim said: “The history of the North Korea and Japan relations gives a lesson that it is impossible to improve the bilateral relations full of distrust and misunderstanding, only with an idea to set out on a summit meeting.

“If Japan truly wants to improve relations and contribute to ensuring regional peace as a close neighbour, it is necessary for it to make a political decision for strategic option conformed to its overall interests,” she said. In February, Ms Kim issued a similar statement on bilateral ties, saying North Korea was open to improving relationships with Japan and even inviting Mr Kishida to Pyongyang.

She said if Mr Kishida stuck to his push to resolve the alleged abductions, he could not avoid criticism that he would only pursue talks to boost his popularity.