SEOUL, South Korea — Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, declared Monday that any potential meeting between her brother and Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is impossible unless Japan abandons what she termed outdated policies.
Her remarks followed Takaichi’s recent comments to the press about her discussions with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington, where she expressed having “a very strong desire” to arrange a face-to-face meeting with Kim Jong Un.
“But this is not the one that comes true, as wanted or decided by Japan,” Kim Yo Jong stated. “In order for the top leaders of the two countries to meet each other, Japan should first be determined to break with its anachronistic practice and habit.”
While Kim Yo Jong, who holds a high-ranking position in the regime, didn’t specify exactly what Japan’s outdated practices entail, she previously indicated in 2024 that North Korea would only consider diplomatic meetings if Japan accepted the country’s nuclear weapons development and stopped pursuing the issue of kidnapped Japanese citizens. That proposed meeting never took place.
In Monday’s statement released through North Korean state media, Kim Yo Jong declared: “I don’t want to see the prime minister of Japan coming to Pyongyang.” However, she characterized her opposition as “just my personal position,” which analysts interpret as an attempt to pressure Japan into making diplomatic concessions.
Experts believe North Korea seeks improved relations with Japan as a strategy to create division between the United States and its regional partners. Japan, meanwhile, remains focused on resolving the cases of its citizens who were kidnapped by North Korean operatives during the 1970s and 1980s.
Following years of denying involvement, North Korea admitted during a 2002 meeting between Kim Jong Il, the current leader’s deceased father, and former Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi that its agents had abducted 13 Japanese citizens. The regime permitted five of those individuals to return to Japan. Japanese officials maintain that additional people may have been taken and some could remain alive.
Koizumi traveled to North Korea a second time in 2004 for another meeting with Kim Jong Il, marking the final diplomatic talks between the two nations.
The prospects for a North Korea-Japan summit appear unlikely given that North Korea has avoided diplomatic engagement with both the United States and South Korea since 2019. While Trump, who conducted three meetings with Kim Jong Un from 2018 to 2019, has repeatedly stated his intention to restart negotiations with Kim, the North Korean leader has suggested he would only resume discussions if the U.S. abandons “its delusional obsession with denuclearization” of North Korea.
According to Takaichi, Trump voiced his support for quickly resolving the abduction cases and indicated he would “provide cooperation in various ways” regarding potential meetings with Kim Jong Un.
