North Korea Says Japan’s Prime Minister Offered to Meet With Leader Kim Jong Un Soon

North Korea Says Japan’s Prime Minister Offered to Meet With Leader Kim Jong Un Soon
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida speaks during a parliamentary session of House of Councilors in Tokyo on March 18, 2024. Kyodo News via AP
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SEOUL, South Korea—North Korea said Monday that Japan’s prime minister has offered to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un but stressed that prospects for their countries’ first summit in about 20 years would depend on Tokyo tolerating the North’s weapons program and ignoring its past abductions of Japanese nationals.

Japan acknowledged it has been trying to arrange a bilateral summit but dismissed North Korea’s preconditions for such a meeting as unacceptable, dimming the prospects that Kim and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida would hold a summit any time soon.