The powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un said on Thursday that her country would be ready to improve relations with Japan, even hinting at a possible future invitation to Pyongyang from its prime minister, AFP reported.

Kim Yo Jong’s comments came after Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said last week that he felt an “urgent need” to change the current state of relations between Tokyo and North Korea.

“I think there will be no reason not to view his recent speech as positive if it is motivated by his true intention to courageously break free from the shackles of the past,” she said in a statement carried by North Korea’s official KCNA news agency. .

For Kim Yo Jong, North Korea and Japan “could open a new future together” depending on the actions the latter takes, especially if it manages to turn the page on the old problem of the North Koreans abducting Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s.

“There will be no reason for the two countries not to get closer, and the day of the Prime Minister’s visit to Pyongyang may come,” she added.

Kidnapping remains a serious problem in Japan

North Korea admitted in 2002 that it had sent agents to kidnap 13 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s, forcing them to teach their spies Japanese language and customs.

But suspicions remain in Japan that there have been many more kidnappings than officially recognized.

In a speech to the UN General Assembly last year, Kishida expressed his desire to meet the North Korean leader “without any conditions”, saying his country was ready to resolve all issues, including abductions.

When Junichiro Koizumi headed the Japanese government, he made a historic visit to Pyongyang in 2002, meeting with Kim Jong Un’s father, Kim Jong Il, and paving the way for normalization of relations with the prospect of economic aid.

The result of this trip was the return of five Japanese citizens from North Korea, and then a trip to “reinforce” Koizumi.

But that diplomatic process quickly ended, not least because Tokyo was concerned that North Korea was not playing fair on the thorny issue of abduction victims.