Kim Yo-jong, sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un, stated that Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed his intent to convene with her brother.
In a statement carried by KCNA, Kim Yo-jong said that Kishida wishes to meet with the North Korean leader at "the earliest date possible." She stressed that the talks will inevitably fail to produce results if Kishida insists on bringing up the issue of Japanese citizens abducted to North Korea in the past decades. She also said that if Japan continues to "interfere with our exercise of our sovereign rights," possibly referring to the country's weapons testing activities, relations between the two countries will not experience a positive breakthrough.
Japan claims that North Korea abducted 17 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s, while Pyongyang admitted to the abduction of 13. North Korea returned five abductees, claiming that the remaining eight were deceased.
