Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is reportedly considering holding a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, despite earlier reservations about dialog with Pyongyang.

 Japanese local media cited an unnamed government source as saying on Wednesday that Tokyo was considering seeking a summit between Abe and Kim.

 The development came almost a week after US President Donald Trump announced he had accepted an invitation by Pyongyang to sit down with Kim without any preconditions. One of the South Korean official who had earlier met with Kim and who had delivered the invitation to Trump in Washington also met with Abe in Tokyo.

 Tokyo is said to be considering using a future meeting to discuss the fate of citizens that it alleges were abducted by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s, according to the local media.

 Abe has previously told Seoul that Japan wanted any demilitarization talks with Pyongyang to address the issue of the alleged abductions.

 “A resolution of the abduction, nuclear, and missile issues is Japan’s core policy,” the prime minister said earlier. “North Korea must match its words with actions.”

 Japan seemed to have early reservations about talks with North Korea. Shortly after Trump’s announcement, Abe said Tokyo would continue “utmost pressure” on Pyongyang to bring about denuclearization.

 This is while China and Russia both welcomed the potential meeting between Trump and Kim. Analysts attributed Tokyo’s cold response to fears that if Pyongyang “sits down with Washington, it will have absolutely no interest whatsoever in sitting down with Japan.—Agencies </s> Japan is considering a summit between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, local media reported, as diplomatic efforts to engage Pyongyang ramp up.

The reports come after the surprise announcement that US President Donald Trump plans his own talks with the North Korean leader, part of fast-paced diplomatic developments following an Olympic detente.

However, there have been no public proposals of talks by either Pyongyang or Tokyo.

Japan's Kyodo news agency reported a potential Abe-Kim summit late Tuesday, citing unnamed government sources who said the talks could be part of a new approach by Tokyo to dealing with the North.

Hours later, Jiji Press reported a similar story, saying Tokyo fears being left behind in dealing with the North if talks proceed between the isolated nation and South Korea and Washington without Japan's involvement.

Contacted by AFP, a foreign ministry spokeswoman said she could not confirm any concrete plans for a summit.

But she added "we will be studying our policies from the viewpoint of what is most effective" to resolve the issues of North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes as well as the abduction of Japanese citizens by Pyongyang.

Earlier this week, South Korean envoy Suh Hoon visited Tokyo to brief Japan's leadership on the fast-moving diplomatic process that saw an announcement last week of a historic US-North Korea summit to discuss Pyongyang's denuclearisation.

Suh, the chief of South Korea's National Intelligence Service, on Tuesday met with Abe but it was unclear if he brought a message from the North Korean leader to propose a summit with Japan.

Media reports and experts say Tokyo fears it may be left out of developments around North Korea, and worries that the issue of abducted Japanese citizens is being sidelined.

But the possibility of an Abe-Kim summit also comes as the Japanese premier faces a growing scandal at home over the sale of government land to one of his supporters, and an apparent cover-up of the deal by the finance ministry.

Abe rose to political prominence on his calls for a tough line on North Korea, particularly over its abductions of Japanese citizens.

Japan, a close US ally in the region, is in the firing line of North Korean missiles and saw two fly over its territory in 2017, sparking outrage and lifting tensions to fever pitch.

The last Japanese prime minister to meet a North Korean leader was Junichiro Koizumi, who met Kim's father Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang in 2004. </s> Japan's top government spokesman left the door open on Wednesday to a possible summit between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to discuss the matter of Japanese citizens kidnapped by Pyongyang's agents decades ago.

TOKYO: Japan's top government spokesman left the door open on Wednesday to a possible summit between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to discuss the matter of Japanese citizens kidnapped by Pyongyang's agents decades ago.

Abe, who has made the abductees issue a keystone of his political career, will meet U.S. President Donald Trump next month in Washington ahead of a proposed summit between the U.S. leader and Pyongyang's Kim, which would follow a planned April meeting between Kim and South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

Worries have surfaced in Tokyo that Japan's interests, including the abductees' fate, may be sidelined by recent moves to resolve the crisis over North Korea's nuclear and missile programmes.

"It is important to harmonise policies closely among Japan, the United States and South Korea ahead of the North-South summit and the U.S-North Korea summit," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a regular news conference.

"After that, while liaising closing among the three countries, we will address how to comprehensively resolve the nuclear, missile and abduction issues. Amid that, we want to consider what would be most effective and address the issues from that perspective," Suga added.

On Tuesday, a government source said the administration was considering seeking an Abe-Kim meeting. He declined to be identified because he's not authorised to speak to media.

Abe, 63, has said he would not rest until all 13 of the people North Korea admitted to kidnapping have returned and divulges information about the others that Japan suspects were taken to train as North Korean spies.

But progress has largely stalled since 2002, when five of the 13 returned home. Pyongyang said the other eight were dead.

A ruling coalition lawmaker said that it was too early to plan for two-way talks with Pyongyang on the kidnappings.

"The order is a North-South summit, followed by a U.S.-North Korea summit. We have to see how they go first,” said the lawmaker, who is well-versed in diplomatic affairs.

Speculation about a Abe-Kim summit emerges periodically, especially when his ratings are soggy.

Then-premier Junichiro Koizumi, got a popularity boost after his 2002 visit to Pyongyang and in 2004 when he brought back five children of abductees.

Abe is facing perhaps the worst crisis since taking office as doubts swirl over a suspected cronyism scandal centred on the discounted sale of state-owned land to a school with ties to his wife. He has denied wrongdoing either by himself or his spouse. </s> Abe to press Trump to raise issue of abducted at Kim summit

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, unable to meet North Korea's leader himself, is heading to Washington to try to make sure President Donald Trump doesn't overlook Japan's security and other concerns at the unprecedented U.S.-North Korea summit next week.

Abe will have less than two hours to make his points to Trump at the White House on Thursday, before both go to Canada for a G-7 summit on Friday and Saturday, and the American president then flies to Singapore for his June 12 meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Japan, which relied on the U.S. for its post-World War II diplomacy and security, has been absent in the recent burst of engagement with North Korea. Chinese President Xi Jinping and South Korean President Moon Jae-in have both met Kim twice, as Abe waits his turn to raise Japan's concerns directly.

"I want to make sure to be on the same page with President Trump ahead of the first ever U.S.-North Korea summit so we can push forward nuclear and missile issues, and most importantly the abduction problem, and make for a successful summit," Abe told reporters before leaving for the airport.

Abe doesn't want Trump to strike a compromise that would leave Japan exposed to shorter-range missiles that do not threaten the U.S. mainland or that relieves pressure on North Korea before it takes concrete steps toward complete denuclearization. He is expected to ask Trump once again to raise with Kim the fate of Japanese abducted by the North in the 1970s and 1980s.

"It wouldn't be my style to have to ask the U.S. for help on the abduction issue," said Hitoshi Tanaka, a former diplomat and head of a think tank, the Institute for International Strategy. "It's embarrassing that a state leader has to ask another leader in resolving the sovereignty of his people."

While in Washington, Abe will also likely press Trump to remove Japan from U.S. steel and aluminum tariffs, as well as express his opposition to threats of sharply higher U.S. tariffs on imported automobiles. Abe said he will show at the G-7 summit his full backing for Trump on North Korea, but he will urge everyone to take leadership in promoting free and fair trade rather than escalating disputes.

Japan hopes to hold talks with North Korea after a successful Trump-Kim summit. Abe has said he is open to meeting with Kim, but only if it would lead to resolving the abduction issue. He said Japan would then normalize ties and provide economic aid as rewards for a North Korean commitment to both denuclearization and resolution of the abduction issue.

Japanese analysts agree that if Abe's turn to meet Kim comes, it would be at the very end of a long process as Trump and other regional leaders deal with North Korea's denuclearization.

"Japan eventually should develop its own diplomacy to deal with North Korea independently to resolve its problems, including the abductions," said Atsuhito Isozaki, a Keio University professor specializing in North Korea.

He said that economic aid or financial compensation for Japan's 35-year colonization of Korea could be attractive, but noted that North Korea now has other potential sources of assistance.

"Japan's economy does not stand out in northeast Asia as it did 16 years ago," he said, when Pyongyang and Tokyo last tried to negotiate a normalization of ties. Without Japan's help, North Korea has arranged a summit with the U.S. and possible economic cooperation from South Korea, he said this week at a briefing for media.

After a 2002 summit between then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, North Korea acknowledged abducting 13 Japanese and allowed five of them to visit Japan, though they then stayed, angering North Korea. Japan says at least 17 Japanese were abducted and possibly more.

Japanese officials are scrambling to get information on the Trump-Kim summit. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Japan will dispatch diplomats to Singapore to try to get the latest updates.

After his last meeting with Trump in April, Abe said the two leaders were in complete agreement on North Korea policy, namely to keep sanctions in place until Pyongyang takes concrete action toward verifiable and irreversible denuclearization.

Concerns have since grown in Japan that Trump may be prioritizing holding a summit rather than the goal of full denuclearization. Abe, who has played tough on the North, also worries that a growing reconciliatory mood between the two Koreas may prompt leniency toward Pyongyang.

Trump's recent statement that he doesn't want to keep using the phrase "maximum pressure" against North Korea reinforced those fears.

North Korea's state media Korea Central News Agency criticized Abe and other Japanese officials for insisting on pressuring the North. KCNA, quoting the Rodong Shimmun newspaper, said Japan worries about being "marginalized from the structure around the Korean Peninsula." </s> Billy is the editor of Verdict. You can reach him at billy.bambrough@verdict.co.uk

As the world is still reeling from the shock announcement that US President Donald Trump could soon meet with Kim Jong-un, Japan’s top government spokesman has revealed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe might soon sit down with the North Korean leader.

Abe wants to discuss the matter of Japanese citizens kidnapped by Pyongyang’s agents decades ago with Kim.

Kim is also expected to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in April.

Earlier this week, South Korean envoy Suh Hoon visited Tokyo to brief Japan’s leadership on the fast-moving diplomatic process.

It is important to harmonise policies closely among Japan, the United States and South Korea ahead of the North-South summit and the US-North Korea summit. After that, while liaising closing among the three countries, we will address how to comprehensively resolve the nuclear, missile and abduction issues. Amid that, we want to consider what would be most effective and address the issues from that perspective.

It’s thought more than a dozen Japanese nationals were abducted in the 1970s and 1980s. They were then put to work teaching North Korean special forces about the Japanese language and culture to enable them to blend in during missions to Japan.

Read more: Here are all the places where Trump might meet Kim

In 2002 the then Japanese prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, meet with Kim Jong-il — the father of the current North Korea ruler — in Pyongyang where he acknowledged the country had targeted Japanese citizens and vowed that the abductions had ended.

Abe has since made the abductees issue a keystone of his political career and has previously used a telephone call with Trump to ask the US for help to resolve the issue.

Japan has also called on US support after North Korean missiles flew over its territory in 2017, sparking outrage and lifting tensions to fever pitch.

Meanwhile, Abe is facing a growing scandal at home over the sale of government land to one of his supporters, and an apparent cover-up of the deal by the finance ministry. </s> Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has welcomed the third summit of US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and expressed hope for continuation of such a dialogue

TOKYO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 01st July, 2019) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has welcomed the third summit of US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and expressed hope for continuation of such a dialogue.

"Japan supports the US-North Korean process. I hope that the current negotiations at the highest level will continue," Abe said as quoted by Kyodo news Agency on Monday.

On Saturday, Trump met with Kim in the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas and held an hour-long meeting in private inside the Freedom House on the South Korean side of the zone.

Trump even briefly stepped over the demarcation line into North Korean soil, becoming the first US president to do so.

Following the meeting, Abe reiterated his intention to have talks with Kim over North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s, a pressing issue in relation between Tokyo and Pyongyang.

Kim and Trump first met in Singapore in June 2018, when the two leaders expressed commitment to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. The second round of talks, held in February in Vietnam, however, ended abruptly without any agreement. </s> The following content is sourced from external partners. We cannot guarantee that it is suitable for the visually or hearing impaired.

This content was published on March 13, 2018 2:14 PM

TOKYO (Reuters) - Differences between Japan and South Korea on how to handle North Korea emerged on Tuesday with South Korea upbeat on prospects but a more cautious Japan demanding that North Korea account for Japanese people it says North Korea abducted decades ago.

Signs of easing tension with North Korea began during the Winter Olympics last month, when the North sent a high-level delegation to the South for the Games, after more than a year of rising alarm over the North's nuclear weapon and missile tests.

Japan has been more guarded about the prospect of talks between the two Koreas, and between North Korea and the United States. Japan has warned that "talks for the sake of talks" would be unacceptable.

South Korean officials have been briefing neighbours and allies, including Japan, on a South Korean delegation's visit to North Korea last week, which included talks with leader Kim Jong Un and agreements on summits with both South Korea and the United States.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday met South Korean National Intelligence Service chief Suh Hoon. Suh, a member of the South Korean team that visited North Korea, held talks on Monday with Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs Taro Kono.

Abe told Suh that Japan wanted any denuclearisation talks with North Korea to also address a dispute over the abductions of Japanese citizens by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s. He also said North Korea had to show its willingness to disarm.

"A resolution of the abduction, nuclear and missile issues is Japan's core policy," Abe said.

"North Korea must match its words with actions."

A Japanese government source later said Japan was considering seeking a summit between Abe and North Korea's Kim to discuss the abductions.

Abe has made the abductions a keystone of his political career and has said he would not rest until all 13 of the people North Korea admitted to kidnapping have returned and the isolated state divulges information about the others Japan suspects were taken to train North Korean spies.

North Korea allowed five people it abducted to return to Japan.

Abe's insistence that the abductions be included in any North Korean talks may be a source of friction with South Korea.

Reflecting that possibility, South Korea's presidential office made no mention of Abe's call on the abduction issue in a statement after his talks with Suh.

The South's presidential Blue House said Abe told Suh he did not believe North Korea would use the summits to buy time to pursue its nuclear and missile programmes.

A Japanese foreign ministry spokesman declined to say whether Abe had made the remark but said it was unusual for South Korea to be making statements on Japan's behalf.

Similarly, on Monday, the Blue House cited Japanese Foreign Minister Kono as saying the progress with North Korea was a "miracle".

In Japan, Kono made no mention of a miracle but said Japan and South Korea had agreed to maintain "maximum pressure" on North Korea until it takes "concrete action".

Suh was due back in Seoul on Tuesday, while South Korea's National Security Office chief, Chung Eui-yong, who led the delegation to Pyongyang, is holding talks in Russia following talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Beijing on Monday.

The Chinese leader told Chung China looked forward to an important opportunity for talks.

Trump has agreed to meet North Korea's Kim by the end of May. South Korean President Moon Jae-in plans to hold his summit with Kim by the end of April.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, speaking on Monday in Nigeria, said preparations for Trump's meeting, including determining the location and agenda, were still at a "very early stage."

Washington had still to hear directly from Pyongyang, he added.

The White House said it fully expected the meeting to take place, if North Korea stuck to its promises.

Abe, who asked Trump for help to resolve the abduction issue in a telephone call after the planned talks were announced, said he aims to meet Trump in the United States next month. </s> Japan on Tuesday emphasised the need for North Korea to take ‘concrete actions’ in regard with denuclearization.

In the purview of the expected visit of US President Donald Trump to North Korea in May, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe called upon North Korea to convert words into actions in regard to denuclearisation of the latter, as reported by the Yonhap news agency.

Abe made the remarks during his meeting with South Korean National Intelligence Service chief Suh Hoon, who was visiting Tokyo to brief him on the outcome of his recent trips to Pyongyang and Washington.

He further highlighted the issue of abducted Japanese nationals in the territory of North Korea and called for its resolution.

“It is our basic stance that the nuclear and missile problems and the kidnapping issue of Japanese people should be resolved. It is important to implement words through action and for the North to take concrete action”, Yonhap quotes Abe as saying.

The Japanese Prime Minister, however, seemed optimist about North Korea to cooperate in the process of denuclearization.

“I do not believe North Korea would use this chance simply to buy more time because it now has to face important negotiations, such as a North Korea-U.S. summit following a South-North Korea summit,” Abe told Suh, according to South Korea’s presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.

Abe was also quoted as saying that Japan is ready to provide all necessary support and cooperation in making the planned back-to-back summits a success.

The spy agency chief Hoon arrived in Japan on Monday and held a meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono.

His visit is part of Seoul’s efforts to rally support for the recent breakthroughs in bringing the North to talks and to get other key stakeholders including China, Russia and Japan on board.

Both North and South Korea have established a dialogue among them regarding the denuclearisation of North Korea after being persisted by Japan and United States.

South Korea had earlier sent a team of envoys to North Korea to discuss regarding denuclearisation. Post which the North Korean leader agreed to hold a summit with President Moon Jae-in in April and further expressed willingness to hold denuclearisation talks with the United States.

On the similar lines, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe would be meeting the USpresident Donald Trump in April to pressurise North Korea to abandon its nuclear program. </s> Japan hopes a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un held Sunday will reinvigorate stalled denuclearization talks and help resolve the issue of Pyongyang's past abductions of Japanese citizens.

After speaking by phone with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Foreign Minister Taro Kono told reporters he welcomed the meeting, saying it was "a big turning point for U.S.-North Korea talks to resume."

"We hope that it will add momentum to efforts toward the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Kono said. He and Pompeo agreed to coordinate their countries' approaches to North Korea.

Trump and Kim held talks in the Demilitarized Zone dividing the two Koreas and agreed to start denuclearization talks within weeks following the breakdown of their February summit.

"The meeting could serve as an opportunity for North Korea to come out of its shell," a senior Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.

Tokyo is closely monitoring whether the two countries will move forward negotiations on the denuclearization of North Korea and improve their ties, which could help the U.S. government set up a summit between Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Kim, as hoped for by the Japanese leader.

Abe has so far failed to deliver on his promise to resolve the long-standing abduction issue. On Sunday, the prime minister described the situation as regrettable.

"I'm convinced that, at the end of the day, I myself need to meet with Chairman Kim Jong Un to resolve it," Abe said during an online debate with the leaders of opposition parties after the U.S.-North Korea meeting.

Abe is aiming to hold face-to-face talks with the North Korean leader to resolve the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by the North in the 1970s and 1980s, a major sticking point hampering Tokyo's relations with Pyongyang.

Abe had said he would not meet with Kim unless an outcome was guaranteed for the settlement of the abduction issue, but he recently changed his position, saying he would meet the North Korean leader "without conditions" to resolve outstanding bilateral issues.
After Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe insisted North Korea settle the issue of Japanese citizens adbucted by North Korea, North Korean state media KCNA accuses Japan of disrupting peace efforts before the planned North Korea–U.S. summit.