Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio has expressed that he wants to meet Kim Jong Un “as soon as possible,” the North Korean leader’s powerful sister, Kim Yo Jong, said Monday, according to state media.
But just a day after hinting that such a summit was possible—pending a “decision” by Japan—Kim changed course, saying Pyongyang would “reject all contact and negotiations” over Tokyo’s continued concerns over abductees and the Kim regime’s ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs.
Last month, the Financial Times reported that Kishida hoped for dialogue with Kim, the first of its kind in two decades, in a bid to boost his flagging domestic approval rating. A major focus of the meeting would be the status and possible release of the Japanese nationals North Korea kidnapped in the 1960s and 70s, the report said.
Kim Yo Jong, who is the vice department director of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Committee and has been tipped as her brother’s possible successor, appeared to indicate last month that the regime was open to a bilateral talk provided Japan stops raising concerns over North Korea’s “legitimate right to self-defense” and the “already settled abduction issue.”
Korea Summit Press Pool via Getty Images
Japan, South Korea and the U.S. have frequently protested the North’s ballistic missile tests and advancing nuclear weapons program.
Despite having signaled the reclusive country’s conditional willingness to meet, Kim Yo Jong did an apparent about-face on Tuesday in a statement carried by state-run Korean Central News Agency.
“Japan has no courage to change history, promote regional peace and stability and take the first step for the fresh DPRK-Japan relations, she said, referring to North Korea’s official name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
“It was the Japanese side that knocked at the door first requesting ‘the Japan-DPRK summit without preconditions’ and the DPRK only clarified its stand that it would welcome Japan if it is ready to make a new start, not being obsessed by the past.”
Newsweek reached out to the North Korean Embassy in China and Prime Minister Kishida’s office with written requests for comment.
In her statement on Monday, Kim Yo Jong said the Japanese prime minister had reached out about the potential summit through “another channel” than would typically be used.
She appeared to leave the door open to the summit but said the Japanese government had to make a “political decision” before bilateral ties could improve.
If Japan is considering interfering in North Korea’s sovereignty, for instance with the “abduction issue,” then Kishida’s outreach is “little short of a bid for popularity” and North Korea will view the country as an enemy rather than a friend, she said.
However, if the Japan “respects the former’s sovereignty and security interests” on fair and equal footing, North Korea’s “strengthened self-defense capability will never be a threat to the security of Japan,” she added.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.