TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Japan and North Korea should begin talks to normalise relations between the two countries and contribute to peace and stability in the region, South Korean President Moon Jae-in told a Japanese newspaper on Tuesday.
“In particular, I think dialogue between Japan and North Korea should be resumed,” Moon said in the interview with the Yomiuri newspaper.
“If Japan-North Korea relations are normalised, that would greatly contribute to peace and security in Northeast Asia beyond the Korean peninsula,” he said in written answers to questions submitted by the newspaper.
At Moon’s summit last month with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, both sides agreed to work towards denuclearisation. Kim said during that meeting he was “ready to have a dialogue with Japan anytime”, Moon told the newspaper.
There was no immediate comment from the Japanese government, which has called Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons and missile programmes the toughest security threat facing Japan since World War Two.
Moon’s interview was conducted ahead of a summit on Wednesday between Moon, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Tokyo.
North Korea was expected to be high on the agenda but a Chinese diplomat said last week the talks were about regional cooperation and not focussed on the Korean peninsula
Nevertheless, months of frosty relations between Beijing and Pyongyang appear to have thawed since Kim’s secretive visit to Beijing in March, where he met Chinese President Xi Jinping.
REUTERS
