Pyongyang: The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered rare opening for Japan, saying she saw a positive tone in comments from Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who is seeking a summit.
Kim Yo Jong indicated a meeting of leaders would be possible if Japan “does not lay such a stumbling block as the already settled abduction issue,” she said in a press statement issued Thursday on state media.
“It is my opinion that if Japan makes a political decision to open up a new way of mending the relations through its courteous behavior and trustworthy action on the basis of courageously breaking with anachronistic hostility and unattainable desire and recognizing each other, the two countries can open up a new future together,” the statement carried on the Korean Central News Agency said.
The tone is a marked change from comments she issued nearly two years ago when she lumped Japan in a bunch of “sinister” nations she accused of raising rabble at the United Nations to criticize Pyongyang for the test of an intercontinental ballistic missile. She has also unleashed speeches with fiery and threatening language directed at South Korea’s leaders.
Japan’s top government spokesman, Yoshimasa Hayashi, said Friday that Tokyo was taking note of the comments from Kim Yo Jong. He also said it was “totally unacceptable” to consider the abduction issue as resolved.
It would be nearly impossible for Kishida not to focus on the abductee issue, which has played a prominent role in the priorities of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party for years.
While North Korea appears to be warming up slightly to Japan, it has widened a chasm between itself and Seoul. Last week, Kim Jong Un said he has the legal right to annihilate South Korea, in his latest move to threaten his neighbor after starting the year by eliminating the concept of peaceful unification from his state’s national policy.
North Korea has been under new pressure as South Korea, Japan and the US have raised their cooperation to new levels over the past two years and stepped up military training against threats posed by Pyongyang. The US has also been bringing nuclear-capable military assets such as aircraft carrier groups and attack submarines off the Korean Peninsula in shows of force meant to deter Kim Jong Un from aggression.
Shin sees little likelihood of a summit taking place given the differences on abductees and the thorny issue of North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
Last month, leader Kim Jong Un also offered an olive branch when he sent a rare message to Kishida expressing sympathy and condolences for the victims of an earthquake in Japan.
