North Korea has no interest in talks with Japan, says leader Kim Jong-un's sister

By Anadolu staff

ANKARA (AA) — North Korea on Tuesday ruled out "any contact or negotiations" with Japan in the future after Tokyo rejected Pyongyang's claim regarding the resolution of a lingering abductees issue.

In a statement carried by state-run Korean Central News Agency, Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of the country's leader Kim Jong-un, accused Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of using bilateral ties for "political calculations."

"This is proven by the attitude of Japan clinging to the unattainable issues which can never be settled and have nothing to be settled," said Kim.

Japan, she added, has "no courage to change history, promote regional peace and stability and take the first step for the fresh DPRK-Japan relations," using the acronym for Pyongyang's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Kim, the vice department director of the ruling Workers' Party's Central Committee, made the remarks a day after Kishida, according to her, expressed a willingness to hold a summit with her brother.

She pointed to comments made by the Japanese government's top spokesman on Monday that Tokyo would not accept North Korea's assertion that the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by Pyongyang in the 1970s and 1980s had already been resolved.

"It was the Japanese side that knocked at the door first requesting 'the Japan-DPRK summit without preconditions,' and the DPRK only clarified its stance that it would welcome Japan if it is ready to make a new start, not being obsessed with the past," she said.

Kishida declined to directly respond to Kim's comments, telling reporters late on Tuesday that Japan would continue its efforts to resolve issues with Pyongyang based on "existing policies."

In 2002, North Korea admitted that it had sent agents to abduct 13 Japanese people in the 1970s and 1980s, pressing them into service training its spies in Japanese language and customs.

This 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 Kim's father Kim Jong-il.

His visit led to 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.