The recent rapprochement between Moscow and Pyongyang raising fears of military collaboration between the two isolated regimes, Tokyo wants to try to calm things down with North Korea. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida assured the UN General Assembly on Tuesday of his “determination” to meet leader Kim Jong-un.
“Japan’s policy on North Korea remains unchanged. Japan wants to normalize its relations with North Korea,” he declared at the United Nations.
Kishida wants a summit “as soon as possible”
“With a view to opening a new era together, I would like to express my determination to meet President Kim Jong-un face-to-face at any time and without conditions,” he added, specifying that he wanted “organize high-level discussions” under his supervision to enable the organization of this summit “as soon as possible”.
The spokesperson for his government had already indicated a few days ago that he was ready to meet the North Korean leader “without preconditions”.
Former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited North Korea twice to meet the father of the current leader, Kim Jong-il. His first visit in 2002 led to the return of five kidnapped Japanese citizens. But relations then deteriorated and became even more tense after North Korea’s nuclear test in 2006.