Posted 3/25/2024, 10:06:15 AM
North Korea Rejects Japanese PM's Overture for Summit, Citing Abduction and Sovereignty Issues
- Japanese PM Kishida conveyed intention to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un soon via "another channel"
- North Korea claims Kishida requested a summit, but meeting unlikely without policy shift by Tokyo
- Kim Yo Jong said no breakthrough as long as Japan raises abduction issue and opposes North Korea's "sovereign rights"
- North Korea will see Japan as "enemy" and target if it remains hostile and infringes on sovereign rights
- Relations overshadowed by nuclear programme, past abductions of Japanese citizens, and Japan's 1910-1945 colonisation of Korea