hankyoreh

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe talks to reporters after a phone call with US President Donald Trump on May 6.

A North Korean official indirectly called for Japan to remove entry bans on North Korean nationals in response to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s declaration of willingness to hold a North Korea-Japan summit without any preconditions, a Japanese news outlet reported.

On May 8, the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper quoted an unnamed North Korean official as saying that Japanese “should first recognize travel by individuals [between North Korea and Japan]” in order to improve the two sides’ relationship.

“Whether it happens right now or not, it is important to have official dialogue between the [North Korean and Japanese] governments. For that to happen, there must not be sanctions against travel by individuals,” the official was quoted as saying. The official also reportedly noted the Summer Olympics scheduled to take place next year in Tokyo.

On the issue of Japanese nationals abducted to North Korea, the official was reported as saying, “We are not claiming that this issue has already been resolved.”

“We are suggesting establishing a proper relationship between North Korea and Japan,” the newspaper quoted the official as saying – in a message that could be interpreted as suggesting Pyongyang may agree to discussions toward resolving the abductee issue once full-scale communication takes place between the two sides.

The newspaper quoted another unnamed North Korean official as expressing skepticism over Abe’s recent statement of intent to hold a North Korea-Japan summit with no preconditions.

“What are the Prime Minister’s true intentions? He says ‘without preconditions,’ but how does he plan to address the abductee issue?” the official reportedly wondered. The newspaper did not identify the nature of the North Korean sources, whose names were not given. The report also said it was unclear whether North Korea had formally named a removal of bans on travel by individuals to the Japanese government as a condition for bilateral negotiations.

The Japanese government introduced an entry ban on North Korean nationals among its independent sanctions against North Korea in late 2006 following the North’s first nuclear test. The entry ban on North Korean nationals was lifted in the wake of the May 2014 Stockholm agreement in which North Korea agreed to reinvestigate the abductee issue. But the entry ban was reinstituted after North Korea test-launched a ballistic missile in 2016 and progress on the abductee issue failed to meet Japan’s expectations. Last month, the Japanese government applied a two-year extension to its independent sanctions, which include a ban on North Korean vessels in Japanese ports in addition to the entry ban on North Korean nationals.

By Cho Ki-weon, Tokyo correspondent

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]