SEOUL, March 25 (UPI) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s influential sister said Monday that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has requested a summit “as soon as possible,” but warned that Tokyo would have to steer clear of contentious issues for any meeting to take place.
According to Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, the Japanese prime minister reached out through an unspecified channel with the request.
“Shortly ago, Kishida, through another channel, conveyed his intention to personally meet the President of the State Affairs of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as soon as possible,” she said in a statement carried by state-run Korean Central News Agency.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is the official name of North Korea.
Kishida has publicly called for a summit on several occasions. At a policy speech in January, he said he wanted to meet with Kim to help raise Japan-North Korea relations to a “new stage” and resolve the longstanding issue of the North’s abductions of Japanese citizens.
The prime minister also brought it up at the U.N. General Assembly last year, saying he was determined to meet the North Korean leader face-to-face without any conditions.
Kim Yo Jong issued a response in February, signaling that North Korea was open to improving relations and potentially hosting a visit from Kishida.
However, she cautioned at the time that Tokyo would have to drop its criticisms of Pyongyang’s illicit missile and nuclear programs and set aside the abduction issue before any steps could be taken.
On Monday, she again warned Japan against “interfering in the exercise of our sovereign right [or] being engrossed in the abduction issue that has no further settlement.”
“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 is necessary for it to make a political decision for strategic option conformed to its overall interests,” Kim said.
She added that the nuclear-armed North would never pose a threat to Japan “if the latter respects the former’s sovereignty and security interests in a fair and equal stand.”
Kishida told parliament on Monday that he was not aware of the media reports on Kim’s comments, but reiterated that his government was still pursuing a summit.
“Top-level talks are important in order to resolve various issues such as the abduction issue,” Kishida said, according to broadcaster NHK. “As I have said in the past, we have been making efforts to encourage this.”
Japan says North Korea kidnapped at least 17 citizens in the 1970s and 1980s for purposes that included giving language lessons to the North’s spies.
In 2002, Pyongyang admitted to abducting 13 Japanese citizens and allowed five to return home while claiming eight others had died.
Tokyo frequently condemns North Korea’s weapons tests and has strengthened its security relationship with Seoul and Washington in the wake of a trilateral Camp David summit in August.
