Japan has conveyed hope to North Korea to hold summit: PM Takaichi

TOKYO - Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on Nov 3 that Japan has already conveyed to North Korea its wish to hold a summit with leader Kim Jong Un to resolve the decades-old issue of Japanese nationals abducted by Pyongyang.

At a gathering on the abductions issue in Tokyo, Ms Takaichi,

who took office on Oct 21

, said she wants to speak frankly with Mr Kim and “achieve concrete results,” adding, “I will do everything during my term to have a breakthrough and resolve the matter.”

Calling the abductions an issue that puts “the lives of victims and national sovereignty at stake,” Ms Takaichi also vowed to work closely with the United States and other countries to pave the way for a resolution.

When she

met with US President Donald Trump

last week during his visit to Japan, she sought his continued cooperation in settling the issue.

Mr Trump, meeting family members of Japanese abductees alongside Ms Takaichi, reiterated his commitment to the issue, saying, “I’m with them all the way, and the US is with them all the way.”

Japan’s government officially lists 17 people as abducted in the 1970s and 1980s by North Korea and suspects Pyongyang’s involvement in many other disappearances.

Five were repatriated in October 2002 following landmark talks between then North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Pyongyang the previous month.

Since Mr Koizumi visited Pyongyang and met Mr Kim again in 2004, there has been no summit between the two nations’ leaders.

Calling the abductions issue a “top priority,” the Japanese government has been seeking to arrange a visit to North Korea.

Ms Takaichi expressed hope that the issue would be settled while family members are “still in good health”, saying that doing so would be “essential for Japan and North Korea to build a future of shared peace and prosperity”.

Families of abductees are racing against time to reunite with their loved ones, with Ms Sakie Yokota, the 89-year-old mother of symbolic victim Megumi Yokota, now the only surviving parent of abductees.

In 2014, North Korea agreed to reinvestigate the cases of Japanese nationals abducted by the country, including Ms Megumi Yokota, who was taken at age 13. But the probe was suspended after Japan tightened sanctions on North Korea following Pyongyang’s nuclear test in 2016.

North Korea, with which Japan has no diplomatic ties, maintains that the abductions issue has already been resolved. KYODO NEWS