Japan to Continue Contact with N. Korea: Kono

June 15, 2018

Tokyo- Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said Friday that the government plans to keep in contact with North Korea.

"Japan has been communicating with North Korea through various channels and will continue to do so," Kono told a press conference after the day's cabinet meeting.

His remark came as the government is working to arrange a meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Pointing out that the existing international economic sanctions on North Korea are based on relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions, Kono said that no country will unilaterally ease such sanctions.

On Thursday, Japanese and North Korean government officials briefly met on the sidelines of an international conference in the Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator and talked about the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea decades ago.

At a joint meeting of the foreign relations and defense division and the abduction issue task force of Japan's ruling Liberal Democratic Party on Friday, the government explained what it intends to do following Tuesday's meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Kim in Singapore.

Some LDP lawmakers expressed caution about Abe seeking to hold a meeting with the North Korean leader, saying that Pyongyang had unilaterally terminated its reinvestigation into the whereabouts of the abduction victims.

One participant at the meeting said that Japan should not allow North Korea to choose which abduction victims it will return to Japan and that the two countries should at least establish a joint team to investigate the abduction issue.

"We have to be careful until something concrete comes in sight," Eriko Yamatani, head of the LDP task force on the abduction issue, told reporters after the meeting. Jiji Press