KYODO NEWS



 

North Korea on Tuesday rejected any further contact or negotiations with Japan and said a summit meeting between its leader Kim Jong Un and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is not in its interest, according to the country's state-run media.

Kim Yo Jong, sister of the North Korean leader, clarified Pyongyang's stance in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency, a day after revealing Kishida has conveyed his intention to meet Kim Jong Un "as soon as possible."

Kim Yo Jong, a senior official in the ruling Workers' Party of Korea, said in February that a visit by Kishida to Pyongyang would be possible if Japan does not make the issue of past abductions of Japanese nationals an obstacle, according to KCNA.

North Korea claims the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by its agents in the 1970s and 1980s has already been settled, and Kim Yo Jong, in her statement Monday, urged Japan to change its stance on the matter.

Later Monday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi, Japan's top government spokesman, dismissed that idea as "totally unacceptable."

Kishida stressed the importance of summit talks to secure the return of the Japanese abductees said "nothing has been decided so far on whether a summit will be realized."

Tokyo officially lists a total of 17 Japanese nationals as abductees.