Japan’s Prime Minister Reportedly Offered to Meet With North Korea’s Leader Kim Jong Un in the Near Future

SEOUL, South Korea—North Korea mentioned on Monday that Japan’s prime minister has proposed a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un but insisted that the likelihood of their countries’ first summit in roughly 20 years would rely on Tokyo accepting the North’s weapons program and overlooking its previous abductions of Japanese nationals.

Japan recognized that it has been attempting to coordinate a bilateral summit but rejected North Korea’s conditions for such a meeting as unacceptable, diminishing the chances of Kim and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida holding a summit anytime soon.

Observers suggest that Kim aims to enhance relations with Japan as a method to drive a wedge between the U.S. and its allies, while Kishida aims to utilize potential progress in the abduction issue, a highly emotional topic for Japan, to bolster his declining approval ratings at home. Following the admission in 2002 that it had kidnapped 13 Japanese nationals, North Korea permitted five to return home but claimed the others had passed away. Japan believes some were still alive.

In a statement published by state media, Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, who also holds a senior position, mentioned that Kishida lately conveyed his desire to meet Kim Jong Un in person through an unspecified channel “as soon as possible.”

She remarked that there would be no breakthrough in North Korea-Japan relations as long as Kishida’s government remains fixated on the abduction issue and intervenes in the North’s “exercise of our sovereign right,” apparently alluding to the North’s weapons testing activities. Deciding to hold a summit alone is insufficient to repair “relations burdened with distrust and misunderstanding,” she stated.

In February, Kim Yo Jong issued a similar statement, stating that North Korea was open to inviting Kishida to Pyongyang but only if Tokyo halted its objections to North Korea’s legitimate right to self-defense and the abduction issue.

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Kishida, speaking in a parliamentary session, mentioned that a meeting with Kim is “crucial” for resolving the abduction issue and that his government has been utilizing various channels to discuss the potential summit. Japanese government spokesperson Yoshimasa Hayashi informed reporters subsequently on Monday that disregarding the abduction issue in talks with North Korea is “unacceptable.”

North Korea and Japan lack diplomatic relations, with their ties overshadowed by North Korea’s nuclear program, the abduction issue, and Japan’s colonization of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. Japan’s colonial misdeeds are a source of intermittent discord between Tokyo and Seoul as well.

After years of denial, North Korea acknowledged at an unprecedented 2002 summit between Kim Jong Il, the late father of Kim Jong Un, and then-Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi that its agents had abducted the 13 Japanese. Japan believes North Korea used them for training spies in Japanese language and culture.

Koizumi made a subsequent visit to North Korea and met Kim Jong Il again in 2004, marking the last summit between the two countries.

Talk of a potential new summit arises amid concerns about North Korea escalating its weapons testing activities in an election year in the U.S. and South Korea. Experts predict that North Korea may seek to leverage an expanded weapons arsenal to secure concessions from the U.S., such as relief from sanctions imposed due to Pyongyang’s nuclear program.

“While North Korea may be waiting for elections in South Korea and the United States before reengaging diplomatically with those countries, it likely aims to bolster its position by developing weapons and driving wedges between U.S. allies,” stated Leif-Eric Easley, a professor of international studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul. “Kishida feels pressured to address the abductions issue, hence his diplomatic efforts.”

The economically struggling North possibly considers potential Japanese economic aid it could receive if the two countries normalized their relations, noted analyst Moon Seong Mook with the Seoul-based Korea Research Institute for National Strategy. He indicated that North Korea may seek the contemporary equivalent of the Japanese assistance South Korea received when the two countries normalized ties in 1965—$500 million or more.

Moon added that Kishida is unlikely to defy Japanese public opinion to make concessions on the abduction issue or violate U.N. resolutions banning North Korea’s nuclear program. Easley opined that a Kim-Kishida summit is improbable as Pyongyang seems unwilling to address its historical abduction of Japanese citizens, and Tokyo cannot ease sanctions on North Korea.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry mentioned on Monday that it was closely cooperating with Japan on Tokyo-Pyongyang communications and the North Korean nuclear issue. It highlighted that South Korea, the U.S., and Japan are working closely to steer North Korea back towards denuclearization.

North Korea’s advancing nuclear and missile capabilities present a significant security threat to Japan, South Korea, and the United States. The three countries have expanded their joint training exercises in response to the North’s provocative series of weapons tests since 2022. Japan and South Korea are two crucial U.S. allies in the region, collectively hosting around 80,000 U.S. troops on their territories.

Earlier on Monday, North Korea’s state media reported that Kim Jong Un oversaw a tank exercise, urging his armored forces to enhance war preparedness amid escalating tensions with South Korea.

While most analysts doubt Kim is genuinely gearing up for war, South Korean officials have raised the prospect of minor provocations in border regions, including the disputed western sea boundary between the Koreas, which has witnessed lethal skirmishes in the past.

By Hyung-jin Kim and Kim Tong-hyung