North Korea has announced that it has no interest in pursuing dialogue with Japan at any level. Quoting North Korea’s foreign minister Choe Son Hui, the state’s official news agency KCNA, stated that there was no interest in any summit meeting with Japan.
North Korea’s ambassador to China, Ri Ryong Nam, added that her country would reject any talks at any level with Japan. This was quoted in another KCNA report.
The statement comes a few days after Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida said he wanted to hold talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “without any preconditions” in a speech at the UNGA. If Kishida’s wish is ever realised, it will be the first summit meeting between Japan and North Korea in 20 years.
Justifying his remarks in the Japanese Parliament last week, Kishida said it was “extremely important for me to take the initiative to build top-level ties” with Pyongyang and that Japan should “not waste any moment.”
The Japanese prime minister’s bid to normalise relations seemed to have initially been met with a positive response. Publicising the Japanese prime minister’s bid for talks, Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said in a KCNA report, that a visit by Kishida to Pyongyang would only be possible if Tokyo did not make the abduction issue an obstacle to bilateral relations.
North Korea and Japan’s relations have been marred by a series of kidnappings of 17 Japanese nationals by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s. News of their whereabouts have never been revealed by Pyongyang, despite Japan’s urging. The issue is an emotive one in Japan and has halted any bid for talks.
Regarding the US, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un last spoke to former president Donald Trump in a series of summit meetings in 2019 that yielded no results. Since then, he has refused to engage with the Biden administration, despite attempts by Washington.
The US demand for North Korea to give up its nuclear missile programme has been a key stumbling block towards any bid towards normalisation.
