Japan Holds Informal Meeting with North Korea, Discusses Past Kidnappings of Citizens

Illustration. (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Japan held informal meetings with North Korea this spring, apparently to make a breakthrough in the long-standing stalemate over past kidnapping cases of Japanese citizens.

Reporting from Antara, Saturday, September 30, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida intended to hold a high-level meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, but there appeared to be no further developments, according to the source. Japan and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations.

Some media outlets stated that Japanese officials contacted the North Korean side in March and May, but Kishida told reporters that he would "refrain from making any statements due to the sensitive nature of the matter."

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, who also serves as minister for handling kidnappings, also did not clarify the truth of the meeting in separate press conferences on Friday, September 29.

The issue of North Korea's abduction of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s became particularly pressing, given that the relatives of the disappeared were aging.

At an event in Tokyo in May seeking the return of kidnapped Japanese citizens, Kishida expressed his enthusiasm for meeting Kim to resolve the issue and requested holding high-level bilateral negotiations with North Korea under his "direct control."

However, a Japanese diplomatic source said “there is a rule not to say what really happened,” implying some kind of contact between the two countries.

The Japanese government has identified 17 of its citizens who were kidnapped by North Korean agents and suspects Pyongyang is linked to more disappearances of Japanese citizens.

In September 2002, then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Pyongyang and signed a historic declaration with Kim's father, then leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Il.

Based on the Pyongyang Declaration, the two Asian countries agreed to make 'every effort to normalize relations,' while Japan promised to extend economic cooperation with North Korea after the normalization of relations.

Koizumi also made North Korea's first official apology for the country's kidnappings and succeeded in repatriating five kidnapping victims the following month.

Next, Japan attempted to return the remaining 12 kidnapped victims.

However, North Korea maintains that the abduction issue has been resolved, and the challenge of holding talks to resolve the abduction issue appears to be increasing due to changes in regional security conditions.

Last August, Kishida confirmed at a trilateral summit with the United States and South Korea that the three would strengthen security cooperation, taking into account the influence of North Korea and China.

This made North Korea allied with China to criticize Japan's actions in releasing processed radioactive water from a damaged nuclear power plant (NPP) into the ocean. The country is also allied with Russia, whose relations with Japan have deteriorated since the Ukraine war.