Japan's new prime minister wants to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un: “I am determined to solve the abduction problem”
Japan's new prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has expressed his desire to hold a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the first meeting between the two neighbors in more than two decades.
The new Prime Minister of Japan Sanae Takaichi wants a summit with Kim Jong Un PHOTO: EFA EFE
“We have already conveyed to North Korea our desire to hold a summit,” Takaichi said Monday at a rally dedicated to the families of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean agents decades ago, CNN reports.
Abductions of Japanese citizens remain one of the most painful disputes between Tokyo and Pyongyang, two countries separated by the sea but linked by a complicated history of colonization and conflict.
“I want leaders to meet face to face and get concrete results”, Takaichi pointed out. “I am determined to make a breakthrough and solve the problem of kidnappings during my tenure“, added the Japanese Prime Minister.
Authorities in Tokyo claim that at least 17 Japanese citizens were abducted by North Korean agents in the late 1970s and 1980s. Five of them were repatriated in 2002 after a partial acknowledgment by North Korea. According to a 2014 UN report, the abductions were part of an espionage program by the Pyongyang regime.
But North Korea disputes Japan's figures and says some of the missing Japanese may have died in accidents or suicides, considering the matter closed.
American support and new hopes
Although he has been in office for less than two weeks, Takaichi has already met twice with the families of the abductees, including once with US President Donald Trump, who was recently visiting Japan. The prime minister said he was thus continuing the political mission of his mentor, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who had introduced Trump to the same families during the American leader's first term.
With new leadership in Tokyo and Trump back in the White House, the families of the Japanese abductees are looking with hope to a possible resumption of negotiations.
The 2002 precedent
The last Japan-North Korea summit took place in 2002, when then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi met in Pyongyang with Kim Jong II, the current leader's father. It was the first visit by a Japanese prime minister to North Korea since World War II and the first time Pyongyang acknowledged the abductions after years of denial.
Kim Jong II apologized at the time, stating that the agents involved had been punished and promising that such actions would not be repeated. The following month, five Japanese abductees were repatriated, reuniting with their families after 20–30 years of captivity.
Koizumi returned to North Korea in 2004, when family members of abductees were also allowed to return to Japan. After that point, negotiations stalled, with no further repatriations or significant progress.
A personal mission for Takaichi
Shinzo Abe, assassinated in 2022, was one of the few Japanese leaders who said they were willing to meet Kim Jong Un without conditions to improve bilateral relations. Former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida made a similar promise, but the meetings did not materialize.
Now Sanae Takaichi, who took over the leadership of the government after the party's internal election victory, inherits a decades-old diplomatic problem. However, the prime minister hopes that she will be the one who will finally succeed in opening a new chapter in the relations between Tokyo and Pyongyang.
