Japan’s new leader Takaichi says she wants to meet North Korea’s Kim Jong Un

By Jessie Yeung, Junko Ogura, CNN

Tokyo (CNN) — Japan’s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said she wants to hold a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un – something no Japanese leader has done in more than 20 years.

“We have already conveyed to North Korea our desire to hold a summit meeting,” Takaichi said Monday at a rally demanding the return of Japanese citizens who were abducted by North Korea decades ago.

The issue is one of the unresolved pain points between the two neighbors divided by sea, whose long history of colonization and conflict has doomed previous attempts at bilateral talks.

“I want the leaders to face each other directly and achieve concrete results,” Takaichi said. “I am determined to break through and resolve the abduction issue during my tenure.”

Japan says at least 17 of its citizens were snatched by North Korean agents in the late 1970s and 1980s. Five citizens were returned in 2002. The abductions appear to have been part of North Korea’s espionage program, according to a 2014 UN report.

Pyongyang disputes the total number taken and says some died in traffic and drowning accidents, as well as suicide, and it considers the matter over.

But for the families of Japanese abductees who remain missing, some of whom were just teenagers when they were taken, there has been no closure or relief. They, along with Japan’s revolving door of leaders over the years, have continued pressing the issue with little success.

Takaichi has met with the abductees’ families twice since taking office, including once with US President Donald Trump during his visit to Japan. She has previously said she’s committed to completing the mission of her mentor, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who introduced the abductees’ families to Trump during the US president’s first term.

The two countries held an unprecedented summit in 2002, with Japan’s then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visiting the North Korean capital Pyongyang to meet Kim Jong Il – the father of now-leader Kim Jong Un.

That visit was the first time a Japanese prime minister visited North Korea since the end of WWII.

It was also the first time North Korea acknowledged its role in the abductions, after many years of denial. Kim Jong Il offered an apology at the time, saying the agents responsible had been punished, and promised to prevent it happening again, according to Japanese government statements at the time.

The five detainees were returned to Japan the following month and reunited with their families – 20 to 30 years after their abduction.

Koizumi returned to North Korea to meet Kim Jong Il a second time in 2004, during which the family members of several abductees were also allowed to return to Japan.

No further repatriations have happened since then – and no progress has been made in talks between the two countries, despite repeated efforts by successive governments.

Abe, who was assassinated in 2022, had signaled a willingness to meet Kim Jong Un without conditions to improve ties between their countries; several years later, then-leader Fumio Kishida also conveyed his intention to meet the North Korean leader.

Each time, a meeting failed to materialize. Now Takaichi, who took office after winning an election in October, is inheriting a decades-old problem that stumped her predecessors – and hoping to be the one to solve it.

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