2024-03-29 20:41:00
The DPRK will react harshly to any encroachment on its sovereignty by Japan, which, despite Pyongyang’s official refusal to engage in dialogue, is trying to make contact with it.
As Day.Az reports with reference to TASS, this was stated by the head of the DPRK Foreign Ministry, Choi Song Hee.
“Dialogue between the DPRK and Japan is not our concern, and we will not tolerate any attempts by Japan to establish contact with us. We will always respond firmly to Japanese interference in matters relating to our sovereignty,” the Korean Central News Agency quoted her as saying.
The sister of North Korean leader Kim Yo Jong said on March 26 that Pyongyang refuses any negotiations with Tokyo and is not interested in holding a meeting between the country’s leader Kim Jong-un and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida because of Tokyo’s position on the issue of kidnapped Japanese citizens. Kim Yo Jong noted that Japan is trying to “question the sovereignty of the DPRK by using expressions such as “nuclear and missile problems.” In addition, Tokyo does not agree with Pyongyang’s position that the issue of abducted Japanese citizens is resolved, Sister Kim concluded Chen-un.
Kishida, like his predecessors, has repeatedly stated that he is ready to personally meet with Kim Jong-un without preconditions in order to solve the problem of kidnapped citizens.
The topic of the abduction of Japanese by North Korean intelligence services is one of the most painful in relations between the two states, which do not maintain official diplomatic ties. In 2002, Pyongyang for the first time admitted the abduction of 13 Japanese citizens and allowed 5 of them to return to their homeland. The rest were declared dead, and their remains were sent to their relatives, the authenticity of which could not be confirmed. In May 2014, the governments of Japan and North Korea agreed to conduct a new investigation into the abductions of Japanese citizens, but the commission involved in this was subsequently dissolved at the initiative of Pyongyang.
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