Kim Yo Jong Talks Up Prospects Of Meeting w/Japan PM

Kim Yo Jong, a member of the powerful State Affairs Commission and sister to Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un has talked up the prospect for improved Japan-North Korea relations, saying there should be no impediment to Japanese PM Fumio Kishida visiting Pyongyang. The comments come after Kishida stated in the Japanese Diet last week that it was “extremely important for me to take the initiative to build top-level ties” with Pyongyang and that Japan should “not waste any moment”.

• Kim: "If Japan ... makes a political decision to open a new path for improving ties based on mutual respect and respectful behaviour, it is my view that the two countries can open a new future," Kim is seen as a key adviser for her brother on foriegn policy issues, and as such her comments will garner notable interest in Japan, South Korea, and the US.
• The leaders of Japan and North Korea have not met since 2004, when then-PM Junichiro Koizumi met with both Kim's father, the late Kim Jong Il.
• Kishida is expected to visit South Korea on 20 March for talks with President Yoon Suk-yeol, with the US keen to ensure that any Kishida-Kim meeting has the full approval of Seoul.
• Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been elevated in recent months amid missile tests by Pyongyang, a deepening of relations between North Korea and Russia, and more bellicose rhetoric emerging from the Kim regime. A meeting with Kishida could go some way to calming the situation.