The influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un assured Thursday that her country would be willing to improve its relations with Japan, even hinting at a possible future invitation to Pyongyang from its prime minister.
Kim Yo-jong's comments come after Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said last week that he felt a
"strong need"
to change the state of current relations between Tokyo and North Korea.
“I think there would be no reason not to consider his recent speech as positive, if it is motivated by his true intention to courageously free himself from the shackles of the past
,” she said in a statement. press release released by the official North Korean news agency KCNA.
An emotional issue in Japan
Kim Yo-jong says North Korea and Japan
"can open a new future together"
depending on the actions the latter takes, particularly if he manages to turn the page on the long-standing kidnapping issue of Japanese citizens by the North Koreans in the 1970s and 1980s.
"There will be no reason for the two countries not to become closer and the day of the prime minister's visit to Pyongyang could come
," he said. -she adds.
These kidnappings remain an important and emotional issue in Japan.
North Korea admitted in 2002 to sending agents to kidnap 13 Japanese people in the 1970s and 1980s, forcing them to train its spies in the Japanese language and customs.
But suspicions persist in Japan of a much higher number of kidnappings than those officially recognized.
In a speech to the United Nations General Assembly last year, Fumio Kishida expressed his desire to meet the North Korean leader
"without any conditions
," saying his country was ready to resolve all issues, including kidnappings.
When he was head of the Japanese government, Junichiro Koizumi made a historic visit to Pyongyang in 2002, meeting Kim Jong-un's father, Kim Jong-il, and paving the way for a normalization of relations with the prospect of economic aid.
This trip led to the return of five Japanese from North Korea, followed by a follow-up trip by Junichiro Koizumi.
But this diplomatic process quickly ended, in particular because Tokyo was worried that North Korea was not playing fair in the thorny issue of kidnapping victims.