North Korea rejects any meetings with Japan

• North Korea has expressed no interest in a summit with Japan, citing foreign minister Choe Son Hui.
• Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has expressed a desire for talks with the North Korean leader.
• North Korea’s ambassador to China, Ri Ryong Nam, also declared no meeting at any level with Japan.

State media reported on Friday that North Korea has no interest in dialogue with Japan, citing foreign minister Choe Son Hui. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has expressed his desire to hold talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “without any preconditions” and is personally overseeing efforts to realize the first such leaders’ summit in 20 years in an attempt to defuse decades of tensions..

North Korea has announced that it lacks interest in a summit with Japan and would decline any talks, indicating no thaw in relations between the two countries. Choe also stated that Pyongyang does not intend to assist with the issue of Japanese abductees, according to sources, and added that North Korea will “respond sharply” to Japan’s interference with its sovereignty.

KCNA quoted Choe as saying, “I cannot understand why he persistently adheres to the issue that cannot be settled,” referring to Kishida.

In 2002, North Korea admitted to kidnapping 13 Japanese citizens decades earlier. Five abductees and their families later returned to Japan, stating that the others had died. However, Japanese media reports that Tokyo believes 17 Japanese were abducted and continues to investigate the fate of those who did not return.

The source reported that North Korea’s ambassador to China, Ri Ryong Nam, also declared that there would be no meeting at any level with Japan. Ri remarked in a statement, mentioning that an official at the Japanese embassy in Beijing proposed contact via email to a councilor of the North Korean embassy.

“I make the stance clear once again that no meeting at any level will take place between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Japan’s side,” Ri was quoted as saying in the KCNA report.

Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of leader Kim, has said she would welcome talks only if Japan was ready to make a new start without “being obsessed by the past.”

Disputes between Japan and North Korea, including the abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korea in the early 2000s, Japan’s occupation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945, and its utilization of forced labor and sexual slavery, have strained relations. Additionally, clashes have arisen over Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs, with the North conducting numerous test launches in recent months, leading to the imposition of fresh sanctions by Seoul and Washington.

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