Japan is not working on the agenda for the meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un yet, Takeshi Osuga, the spokesman for the Japanese Foreign Ministry, told Sputnik on Tuesday
VLADIVOSTOK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 11th September, 2018) Japan is not working on the agenda for the meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un yet, Takeshi Osuga, the spokesman for the Japanese Foreign Ministry, told Sputnik on Tuesday.
On August 6, Abe confirmed his readiness to meet with Kim in order to discuss denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and the future of Tokyo-Pyongyang ties.
"It depends on how we understand the meaning of the word 'preparation,'" Osuga said, when he was asked whether Japan was preparing for the summit with North Korea.
According to Osuga, Abe officially stated that "as there is a problem of kidnapped Japanese citizens, Japan and North Korea should settle this issue."
"The working-level preparation for the Japan-North Korea summit is another, separate issue," Osuga said.
He added that the settlement to the kidnapped Japanese citizens' issue was not Tokyo's requisition for the meeting to be held.
"No, there is no such requisition, but someday Prime Minister Abe will certainly face the necessity to hold a Japanese-[North] Korean top level meeting. But we cannot say that we are currently elaborating the program of this meeting," Osuga said.
According to Tokyo, at least 17 Japanese nationals have been victims of kidnapping by North Korean intelligence services in the 1970-1980s. It is believed that some of these Japanese citizens were abducted for the purpose of obtaining their identities, which were used by North Korean penetration agents in South Korea. Other abductees allegedly taught the Japanese language to North Korean intelligence personnel.
In 2012, North Korea admitted it had kidnapped 13 Japanese and released five of them, claiming that the remaining eight had died.
The issue of the kidnapped Japanese citizens remains unresolved today and continues to be a key roadblock in bilateral relations between Tokyo and Pyongyang.
