Japanese premier reiterates need for summit with North Korea

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) - Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida Friday reiterated the need for a summit with North Korea, with the support of the international community, including the US.

Kishida's call for the summit came during a meeting on Friday in Tokyo with relatives of Japanese nationals allegedly kidnapped by North Korea, during which the prime minister also sought the support of the US and the international community.

The group recently visited the US, where they sought help from American lawmakers and officials solve the abduction issue, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported.

Kishida indicated that he "will step up calls on North Korea to hold a summit with help and understanding from the US."

“The government will work with the international community to continue high-level talks to realize a Japan-North Korea summit,” said Kishida.

Tokyo had early this year twice sought a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

But Pyongyang turned down the proposal, saying North Korea "has nothing to solve as regards the 'abduction issue' insisted by Japan.”

"A fruitful relationship between Japan and North Korea is aligned with the interests of both sides," Kishida had said.

Dialogue between the two sides "is not a matter of concern to (Pyongyang)," the country's Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui said in March, rejecting talks on the long-standing issue of Japanese nationals abducted by Pyongyang in the 1970s and 1980s.

In 2002, North Korea admitted that it had sent agents to abduct 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s, pressing them into service and training its spies in Japanese language and customs in what has since remained a major issue in Japan.

Japan's former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi paid a landmark visit to Pyongyang in 2002 and met with Kim's father, Kim Jong-il.

His visit resulted in the return of five Japanese nationals and a follow-up trip by Koizumi, but the diplomacy soon broke down following Tokyo’s claim that Pyongyang was not coming clean about the abduction victims.