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As Japan’s Kishida eyes ties with North Korea, will abduction issue be ‘stumbling block’?
- Talks will be ‘unlikely nor productive’ if they exclude North Korea’s abduction of Japanese nationals and nuclear threats from Pyongyang, analysts say
- ‘Tangible’ takeaways from a potential Japan-North Korea summit are required if Kishida hopes to use foreign relation wins to boost his domestic approval
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A potential summit by Japan and North Korea would be pointless if Pyongyang refuses to address the issue of the abduction of Japanese nationals, analysts say, especially with Japanese leader Fumio Kishida hoping to boost his faltering premiership at home.
Kishida said in parliament this month it was “extremely important” for him to take the initiative “to build top-level ties” with North Korea, especially in meeting the country’s reclusive leader Kim Jong-un.
In response, Kim’s sister Yo-jong last Thursday said Pyongyang and Tokyo “can open up a new future together”, according to North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency.
She also said, however, that a meeting would be possible only if Japan “does not lay such a stumbling block as the already settled abduction issue”.
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The last talks between a Japanese prime minister and North Korean ruler was in 2004, when Junichiro Koizumi met Kim Jong-il, father of the hermit kingdom’s current leader, in Pyongyang for the second time.
Ryo Hinata-Yamaguchi, an assistant professor of international relations at the University of Tokyo, said the summit will be “unlikely nor productive” if it avoided critical issues such as North Korea’s abduction of Japanese nationals and the nuclear and missile threats posed by Pyongyang.
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“For any administration in Japan, the summit will only help if there is progress on these issues,” he added.
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