North Korea claims Japanese PM requested summit with Kim Jong Un

• Kishida’s request is unlikely without a policy shift by Tokyo, which has historically strained relations.
• Kishida expressed a desire to improve ties, which Pyongyang has hinted it is not opposed to.
• Analysts suggest that North Korea’s statement could be an attempt by Pyongyang to negotiate terms for a future summit.

On Monday, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister stated that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has requested a summit with her brother. She added that a meeting was unlikely without a policy shift by Tokyo. Historically strained relations between the two countries include a long-running kidnapping dispute and North Korea’s banned weapons programs, but Kishida has recently expressed a desire to improve ties, hinting at Pyongyang’s non-opposition.

Last year, Kishida stated that he was willing to meet Kim “without any conditions,” asserting that Tokyo was ready 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.

“Kishida… conveyed his intention to personally meet the President of the State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as soon as possible,” Kim Yo Jong said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

Last month, Kim Yo Jong — one of the regime’s key spokespeople — hinted at a possible future invitation for the Japanese leader to visit North Korea.

However, she emphasized that the “history of the DPRK-Japan relations gives a lesson that it is impossible to improve the bilateral relations full of distrust and misunderstanding,” without a substantive policy change on Tokyo’s part.

She warned that if Japan were to remain “engrossed in the abduction issue that has no further settlement,” then Kishida’s hopes of improving ties would not materialize.

On Monday, Kishida stated that he was not aware of the KCNA report and did not directly comment on its contents while emphasizing the importance of top-level talks with North Korea.

“For Japan-North Korea relations, top-level talks are important to resolve issues such as the abduction issue,” Kishida said in parliament, referring to kidnappings that took place in the 1970s and ‘80s.

“This is why we have been making various approaches to North Korea at the level directly under my control, as I have said in the past.”

In 2002, North Korea admitted to sending agents to kidnap 13 Japanese people in the 1970s and ’80s, whom they used to train spies in Japanese language and customs.

The abductions remain a potent and emotional issue in Japan, and many suspect that officials have not recognized the full extent of the abductions.

Analysts have long stated that contention over the issue could hinder progress toward a summit between Kishida and Kim Jong Un.

However, Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul, suggested that North Korea’s statement seemed to be an attempt by Pyongyang to negotiate terms for any future summit between the two countries’ leaders.

“It seems the North sees there’s no point in making contact with the Japanese side without checking what requirements each side has in mind that could lead to nothing after all if those requirements are too different to reconcile,” Hong said.

“It is Pyongyang’s way of testing how serious Japan is in holding the meeting and setting its summit prerequisites to host the meeting.”

While in office in 2002, Japan’s former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made a landmark visit to Pyongyang, where he met with Kim’s father, Kim Jong Il, and outlined a path to normalize relations, involving Japan offering economic assistance.

The trip resulted in the return of five Japanese nationals and a subsequent visit by Koizumi. However, the diplomacy soon broke down, partly due to Tokyo’s concern that North Korea was not being transparent about the abduction victims.

Kim Yo Jong said that Kishida “should not think that he can meet our state leadership when he has wanted and decided.”

“If Japan truly wants to improve the bilateral relations and contribute to ensuring regional peace and stability as a close neighbor of the DPRK, it must make a political decision for strategic option conformed to its overall interests,” she added.

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