Post by Admin on Jan 6, 2024 19:43:32 GMT
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has sent a “message of sympathy” to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida following the devastating earthquake in Ishikawa Prefecture earlier this week that has left 100 people dead and more than 200 missing.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a short dispatch Saturday that Kim had “expressed his deep sympathy and condolences to the prime minister and, through him, to the bereaved families and victims" a day earlier.
In the extremely rare communication between the two countries’ leaders — Kim's first to Kishida — the North Korean strongman said he “sincerely hoped that the people in the affected areas would ... restore their stable life at the earliest date possible.”
Asked to confirm the letter and if Japan might respond, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi acknowledged the message's receipt and said the Japanese government "is grateful" for an outpouring from a number of countries.
Hayashi did not directly answer if Japan would respond to the North Korean message, instead saying there was no current plan to reply to the numerous countries' letters of sympathy.
North Korea and Japan do not have diplomatic relations, and Tokyo has long been demonized by Pyongyang for its 1910-1945 colonization of the Korean Peninsula.
Asked about past examples of similar letters from North Korean leaders or senior officials, Hayashi said there had not been such a message since 1995, when one of Pyongyang's top officials sent a condolence letter following the Great Hanshin Earthquake that rocked the Kansai region that year.
While Kim has met with Chinese, South Korean, Russian, and U.S. leaders, no Japanese prime minister has met with a North Korean leader since Junichiro Koizumi visited Pyongyang for talks with Kim's father, Kim Jong Il, in September 2002.
Kishida has sought to meet Kim "without preconditions," and in November reiterated a pledge “to step up efforts to realize an early summit" in a bid to resolve the long festering issue of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents decades ago.
Tokyo engaged in several informal contacts with Pyongyang last spring, apparently in an attempt to reach a breakthrough on the abductions issue, according to media reports.
Kim’s regime responded to Kishida’s entreaties by having Vice Foreign Minister Pak Sang Gil release a statement saying there is "no reason" for the two countries "not to meet."
Still, the North has continued to ramp up its development of nuclear bombs and powerful missiles capable of striking Japan, South Korea and the entire United States — including a test last month of a solid-fueled Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile.
Japan’s Defense Ministry estimated the weapon has a range of 15,000 kilometers.
Pyongyang’s single-minded focus on building up its arsenal has helped nudge Tokyo and Seoul closer together after years of fraught ties, with Kishida joining South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and U.S. leader Joe Biden for a landmark trilateral summit last year that paved the way for the operation of a real-time system for sharing data on tracking North Korean missiles.
In a separate report Saturday, KCNA said Kim had also expressed sympathy to Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and reaffirmed North Korea's stand in "opposing all sorts of terrorism," following a deadly bombing that the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for earlier this week.
The North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a short dispatch Saturday that Kim had “expressed his deep sympathy and condolences to the prime minister and, through him, to the bereaved families and victims" a day earlier.
In the extremely rare communication between the two countries’ leaders — Kim's first to Kishida — the North Korean strongman said he “sincerely hoped that the people in the affected areas would ... restore their stable life at the earliest date possible.”
Asked to confirm the letter and if Japan might respond, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi acknowledged the message's receipt and said the Japanese government "is grateful" for an outpouring from a number of countries.
Hayashi did not directly answer if Japan would respond to the North Korean message, instead saying there was no current plan to reply to the numerous countries' letters of sympathy.
North Korea and Japan do not have diplomatic relations, and Tokyo has long been demonized by Pyongyang for its 1910-1945 colonization of the Korean Peninsula.
Asked about past examples of similar letters from North Korean leaders or senior officials, Hayashi said there had not been such a message since 1995, when one of Pyongyang's top officials sent a condolence letter following the Great Hanshin Earthquake that rocked the Kansai region that year.
While Kim has met with Chinese, South Korean, Russian, and U.S. leaders, no Japanese prime minister has met with a North Korean leader since Junichiro Koizumi visited Pyongyang for talks with Kim's father, Kim Jong Il, in September 2002.
Kishida has sought to meet Kim "without preconditions," and in November reiterated a pledge “to step up efforts to realize an early summit" in a bid to resolve the long festering issue of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents decades ago.
Tokyo engaged in several informal contacts with Pyongyang last spring, apparently in an attempt to reach a breakthrough on the abductions issue, according to media reports.
Kim’s regime responded to Kishida’s entreaties by having Vice Foreign Minister Pak Sang Gil release a statement saying there is "no reason" for the two countries "not to meet."
Still, the North has continued to ramp up its development of nuclear bombs and powerful missiles capable of striking Japan, South Korea and the entire United States — including a test last month of a solid-fueled Hwasong-18 intercontinental ballistic missile.
Japan’s Defense Ministry estimated the weapon has a range of 15,000 kilometers.
Pyongyang’s single-minded focus on building up its arsenal has helped nudge Tokyo and Seoul closer together after years of fraught ties, with Kishida joining South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol and U.S. leader Joe Biden for a landmark trilateral summit last year that paved the way for the operation of a real-time system for sharing data on tracking North Korean missiles.
In a separate report Saturday, KCNA said Kim had also expressed sympathy to Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and reaffirmed North Korea's stand in "opposing all sorts of terrorism," following a deadly bombing that the Islamic State group claimed responsibility for earlier this week.