The news was reported by a South Korean newspaper. For a year now, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has been working to organize a summit with dictator Kim Jong Un, but in recent months North Korea had issued statements to the contrary. The issue of citizens kidnapped by Pyongyang remains an important issue.
Tokyo (/Agencies) – In a secret meeting in mid-May, representatives of Japan and North Korea met in Mongolia to discuss various bilateral issues, despite the fact that Pyongyang had publicly declared that it had rejected dialogue with Tokyo, which in turn continues to raise the issue of North Korea’s kidnapping of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s, kidnappings that were carried out to train North Korean spies in Japanese language and customs.
The news was published by the South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo, explaining that the Japanese delegation was made up of a politician, while the North Korean delegation was made up of three people, one of whom belonged to the intelligence service. In this way, Pyongyang aims to achieve an “economic and diplomatic turning point,” the newspaper commented, adding that representatives of both countries should have also met last week in the Chinese autonomous region of Mongolia. However, a source said: “It is not clear whether the contact took place as planned.”
In recent months, tensions and statements of various kinds have been recorded between both countries. Since last year, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has been working on “high-level exchanges” to hold a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. In February, the dictator’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, had opened the possibility of a visit by Kishida to North Korea, on the condition that Japan did not make the issue of kidnappings an “obstacle” between the two countries. However, the following month Kim Yo Jong herself made a new statement stating that Tokyo was clinging to “unsolvable issues.” “It is impossible to improve bilateral relations full of mistrust and misunderstandings, just with the idea of holding a summit,” says the statement released by the Korea Central News Agency, the official press organ of the North Korean regime. Japanese Prime Minister Kishida has continued to insist in the dialogue, but the issue of kidnappings, especially for Japanese public opinion, remains important, while Pyongyang, more interested in strengthening relations with Moscow and Beijing, accuses Tokyo of having occupied and colonized the Korean peninsula by committing atrocious crimes.
In the early 2000s, the two countries (which do not maintain diplomatic relations) were on the verge of normalizing relations. Five Japanese citizens of the 17 (Pyongyang claims there were 13) were returned. But if for North Korea the issue had been resolved, stating that the rest had died, there are groups of Japanese citizens who continue to campaign for those who never returned.
According to some analysts, Kishida is trying by all means to organize a summit with Kim Jong Un to turn around his rule, given that his approval rating fell to 20% in February. Other opinions maintain that the Japanese prime minister wants to demonstrate (especially in Washington) that he can propose himself as a mediator with North Korea, at a time when relations with the United States are at a standstill and relations with South Korea are worsening.
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