North Korea will refuse "any contact and negotiations" with Japan in the future, the powerful sister of the nuclear-armed country's leader said Tuesday, just a day after she said Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had requested a summit with her brother, Kim Jong Un.
In a statement carried by the North's official Korean Central News Agency, Kim Yo Jong pointed to the comments by the Japanese government's top spokesman on Monday that Tokyo would never accept Pyongyang's claim that the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by Pyongyang in the 1970s and 1980s had already been resolved, reports the Japan Times.
"Japan has no courage to change history, promote regional peace and stability and take the first step for the fresh DPRK-Japan relations," she said, adding that a summit meeting between the two countries' leaders was therefore "not a matter of concern" to Pyongyang.
"The DPRK government has clearly understood once again the attitude of Japan and, accordingly, the DPRK side will pay no attention to and reject any contact and negotiations with the Japanese side," KCNA quoted her as saying, using the acronym for the country's formal name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
Kim Yo Jong had raised the possibility of a North Korea-Japan summit on Monday when she said that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida had conveyed his hopes of meeting her brother "as soon as possible."
But the sister, who serves as a top adviser to the North Korean leader, said that improving relations - and the chances of any summit - would hinge on whether Japan was willing to make "a political decision," likely a reference to the abduction issue.
Kishida declined to comment on the latest remarks, telling reporters late Tuesday that he would continue to stay the course in seeking to resolve the long-festering issues between the two countries that he set in motion more than a year ago.
"Whatever the case, Japan will continue to make efforts under its existing policies," he said.
Last month, Kim Yo Jong dangled the prospect of a visit to Pyongyang by Kishida - though this included the caveat that Japan remove "stumbling blocks" in the relationship, including what she said was the "already-settled" abductions issue.
On Monday, she reiterated this stance, saying that were Japan to remain "engrossed in the abduction issue that has no further settlement," Kishida's outreach to Pyongyang would be seen as little more than "a bid for popularity."
Kishida on Monday said that while nothing had been decided, summit-level talks would be "important for resolving issues such as the abduction problem."
Relatives of abductees last month conditionally accepted the possibility of Tokyo lifting its sanctions on Pyongyang, giving the Japanese government breathing room to attempt a breakthrough with its nuclear-armed neighbor.
Japan has identified 17 people as abductees taken by North Korea in the 1970s and 80s. Five of those were allowed to return home after then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Pyongyang in 2002. But North Korea has said that of the remaining 12, eight had died and four never entered its territory.
In seeking a summit with Kim Jong Un, finding a palatable solution to the abduction issue has been a high hurdle to clear for Kishida, who has emphasized his openness to "unconditional talks" and repeatedly said that a "bold step" is necessary to improving ties.
Japan has long insisted it would only talk to Pyongyang once it changed its stance on the abductee issue.
Skeptics have said that the apparent olive branch offered by North Korea was merely concealing a more likely motivation - to drive a wedge between Tokyo's ever-closer trilateral and bilateral ties with Seoul and Washington.
