Kishida seeks talks with Kim Jong Un, eying China border reopening
Japan PM again floats idea of discussing abductions with North Korean leader
TOKYO/SEOUL -- Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Thursday reiterated his willingness to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to resolve the long-standing issue of Pyongyang's past abductions of Japanese citizens.
"A leaders' summit with General Secretary Kim should be realized at an early date without wasting opportunities, so I intend to continue pursuing high-level talks under my direct control," Kishida told an upper house committee. In late May, he had more than once expressed an openness to meeting with Kim.
Kishida said Thursday that his aim was to "wipe the slate clean following an unfortunate past and realize normalization of diplomatic relations," with the precondition of a comprehensive resolution to the abduction, nuclear weapons and missile issues.
Abductees' families are aging, Kishida noted.
"The abduction issue is a human rights issue with a time limit," he said.
Kishida's drive for a dialogue with Kim stems from the possibility that North Korea will soon open its border with China to travelers and begin diplomatic activities.
North Korea resumed freight train service to China and Russia in 2022. North Korean authorities moved in May to boost freight train traffic, according to South Korea's National Intelligence Service, which also reported that the North was struggling with a major outbreak of "fever" -- a euphemism for COVID-19.
Diplomatic efforts with North Korea have been stalled since denuclearization talks between Kim and then-U.S. President Donald Trump collapsed in 2019. There are no signs that Pyongyang will enter into a dialogue with the administrations of current U.S. President Joe Biden or South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
North Korea's response with Japan appears somewhat different. When Kishida said he was willing to enter into "high-level discussions," Pyongyang was quick to respond.
If Japan "seeks a way out for improving the relations, there is no reason for the DPRK and Japan not to meet," North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Pak Sang Gil said in a late-May statement carried by state media. The DPRK is the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's formal name.
Before its failed launch of a military reconnaissance satellite in May, North Korea had given Japan advance notice before telling the rest of the international community.
There are other signs that the North is softening its stance toward Japan.
Choi Sung-yong, the head of South Korea's Abductees' Family Union, said he received a message in late May from Kim Eun Gyong, the daughter of Japanese abductee Megumi Yokota.
Yokota was taken in 1977 at age 13 and never returned to her family. Her father, Shigeru Yokota, died in 2020.
"I want flowers placed [at his grave] in my name," the message from Kim Eun Gyong said, according to Choi.
The Japanese government officially lists 17 citizens abducted by North Korea, and no progress on the issue has been made for nearly a decade.
The most recent movement was the 2014 Stockholm Agreement, where the North Korean side pledged to reopen investigations into abductees. Pyongyang later declared a unilateral end to the probes in 2016.
Kishida faces high hurdles to realizing a summit with Kim, among them the differing positions on the abduction issue. Pak insisted in the late-May statement that the matter has been "resolved," warning that if Japan "tries to fulfill the unrealizable desire by employing the methods used by the preceding regimes without any better proposals and bold decision to rewrite history, it will be a miscalculation and a waste of time."
Kishida also lacks a go-between who could broker a summit. To prepare for then-Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's trip to North Korea in 2002, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs negotiated secretly with a North Korean official known as "Mr. X."
"We still can't say that there have been major changes to the situation yet, and it appears that both Japan and North Korea are feeling each other out to see their real intentions and their level of commitment," said Keio University professor Atsuhito Isozaki, an expert in North Korean politics.