Japan's PM may meet N. Korean leader regarding abduction issue
Source: AFP |
May 16, 2013, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
JAPAN'S Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said yesterday he may meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un if it could help resolve the long-standing issue of Pyongyang's kidnapping of Japanese citizens.
"If a summit meeting is deemed as an important means in considering ways to resolve the abduction issue, we must take it into consideration as a matter of course in negotiating with them," Abe told a parliamentary committee.
The prime minister, responding to a question from an opposition lawmaker, was speaking the day after his senior aide arrived in Pyongyang on a surprise visit.
But Abe refused to comment on the purpose of Isao Iijima's trip.
When then-Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Pyongyang in 2002, North Korea admitted its agents kidnapped Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s to train spies in Japanese language and customs.
Some of those snatched were allowed to return to Japan along with children who were born in North Korea, but Pyongyang said the rest of them had died.
However, many in Japan believe North Korea is still holding some and Pyongyang's perceived refusal to come clean has derailed efforts to normalize ties.
Iijima was also a senior aide to Koizumi and is known to have played a role in organizing his trips to Pyongyang in 2002 and 2004 for talks with then-North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Abe accompanied Koizumi on the 2002 visit.
According to Japanese media, Iijima, who is seen as having cultivated his own connections in North Korea, was greeted at the airport in Pyongyang by Kim Chol Ho, vice director of the foreign ministry's Asian affairs department.
Iijama yesterday held talks with Kim Yong Il, secretary of the central committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, North Korea's state news agency said.
Reports yesterday were rife with speculation that North Korea was trying to thaw icy relations with Japan at a time when ties with the US and South Korea have worsened after nuclear and missile tests.
The US and its two Asian allies have increased pressure on Pyongyang to drop its nuclear ambitions and join the international community.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tokyo stood firm on its mission to resolve the kidnapping issue as well as North Korea's military threats.
"If a summit meeting is deemed as an important means in considering ways to resolve the abduction issue, we must take it into consideration as a matter of course in negotiating with them," Abe told a parliamentary committee.
The prime minister, responding to a question from an opposition lawmaker, was speaking the day after his senior aide arrived in Pyongyang on a surprise visit.
But Abe refused to comment on the purpose of Isao Iijima's trip.
When then-Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Pyongyang in 2002, North Korea admitted its agents kidnapped Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s to train spies in Japanese language and customs.
Some of those snatched were allowed to return to Japan along with children who were born in North Korea, but Pyongyang said the rest of them had died.
However, many in Japan believe North Korea is still holding some and Pyongyang's perceived refusal to come clean has derailed efforts to normalize ties.
Iijima was also a senior aide to Koizumi and is known to have played a role in organizing his trips to Pyongyang in 2002 and 2004 for talks with then-North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. Abe accompanied Koizumi on the 2002 visit.
According to Japanese media, Iijima, who is seen as having cultivated his own connections in North Korea, was greeted at the airport in Pyongyang by Kim Chol Ho, vice director of the foreign ministry's Asian affairs department.
Iijama yesterday held talks with Kim Yong Il, secretary of the central committee of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, North Korea's state news agency said.
Reports yesterday were rife with speculation that North Korea was trying to thaw icy relations with Japan at a time when ties with the US and South Korea have worsened after nuclear and missile tests.
The US and its two Asian allies have increased pressure on Pyongyang to drop its nuclear ambitions and join the international community.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Tokyo stood firm on its mission to resolve the kidnapping issue as well as North Korea's military threats.
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