SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister said on Tuesday ( Mar 26 ) Pyongyang would reject “any contact or negotiations” with Japan, just a day after she said Tokyo’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had requested a summit with her brother.
Relations between the two nations have historically been strained, including a protracted theft controversy and North Korea’s banned arms program, but Kishida has lately expressed a desire to improve relationships, which Pyongyang has suggested it is not opposed to.
Kim said last year that he was ready to meet Kim “without any problems,” and that Tokyo was ready to solve all problems, including the violence by North Korean providers of Japanese residents in the 1970s and 1980s, which is still a contentious issue in Japan.
One of the government’s most influential representatives, Kim Yo Jong, claimed on Monday that Kishida had requested a conference with Pyongyang’s head, adding that a change in Tokyo’s strategy was doubtful.
But on Tuesday, citing Tokyo’s absence of” confidence” for “new” North Korea- Japan relationships, including over its position on the suicide concern and North Korea’s military programs, Kim Yo Jong said Pyongyang may dismiss any contact with Japan.
According to Pyongyang’s standard Asian Central News Agency,” Our government has evidently understood Japan’s mindset once more, and the conclusion is that we will reject and refuse any phone or agreements with the Chinese side.”
She continued,” We do not have any interest in the North Korea- Japan mountain meet.”