The new Prime Minister of Japan, Shigeru Ishiba, has expressed his willingness to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to resolve the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean intelligence, the Kyodo news agency reported.< /p>
„It is very important that the leaders of the two countries see the big picture and openly express their position on this issue”, Ishiba said at a meeting with the families of the abductees.
Shinzo Abe first expressed his determination to meet the North Korean leader without preconditions in 2018, after which this position became consistent for the Japanese government. At that time, the possibility of a visit by the Japanese Prime Minister to the DPRK was even discussed, but it never took place.
The issue of Japanese abductions by North Korean intelligence services is one of the most painful in relations between the two countries, which do not maintain formal diplomatic relations. In 2002, Pyongyang first acknowledged the abduction of 13 Japanese citizens and allowed 5 of them to return to their homeland. The rest were declared dead and their remains sent to their next of kin, whose authenticity could not be confirmed. In May 2014, the governments of Japan and North Korea agreed to conduct a new investigation into the abductions of Japanese citizens, but the commission involved was subsequently disbanded at Pyongyang's instigation.
The sister of North Korean leader Kim Yo Jong said on March 26 that Pyongyang is rejecting any talks with Tokyo. She stressed that Pyongyang was not interested in holding a meeting between Kim Jong-un and then Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida because of Tokyo's position on the issue of abducted Japanese citizens. Kim Jong-un's sister noted that Japan is trying to “question the sovereignty of the DPRK by using expressions such as “nuclear and missile problems”. In addition, Tokyo does not agree with Pyongyang's position that the problem of abducted Japanese citizens has been resolved, Kim Yo-chan concluded.
Meanwhile, North Korea has confirmed that its recently revised constitution designates South Korea as a "hostile state" for the first time, the Associated Press reported, citing BTA.
North Korea's parliament sat for two days last week to amend the country's constitution, but state media did not immediately provide many details.
In January, leader Kim Jong-un called for a constitutional change that would designate South Korea as the country's main enemy, remove the goal of a peaceful reunification of the two countries, and define North Korea's sovereign, territorial sphere.
North Korea's official news agency KCTA said today that the constitution "clearly defines" South Korea "as a hostile state" when it reported Pyongyang's destruction of disused road and rail links that once connected North and South Korea.
KCTA did not give more details about the constitutional change.
A survey by Japan's leading business newspaper Nikkei suggests the ruling Liberal Democratic Party of Japan (LDP), led by new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, could lose its majority in the key lower house of parliament after the October 27 election.
According to these data, there is a chance that the LDP will not win the necessary 233 seats for a majority in the 465-seat lower house. The last time this happened was in 2009 - then the LDP failed in the elections and power in the country passed for several years to the now defunct Democratic Party of Japan. Analysis of the responses allowed Nikkei to predict that the LDP is likely to win only 30% of the constituencies, which could ultimately prevent it from getting the number of seats needed to form a majority in parliament. Before the lower house of parliament was dissolved on the eve of the election, the LDP had 255 seats there - a comfortable majority that would allow it to single-handedly pass any laws or amendments to them if necessary.
According to one scenario cited by Nikkei based on a survey, the LDP may not win more than half the seats in parliament even with its coalition partner, the Komeito party, which currently holds 32 seats. The paper believes Komeito will also lose some of his lower house seats as a result of the election. The leaders of the LDP and Komeito have repeatedly emphasized that the main goal of the upcoming elections is to preserve the coalition majority.
Meanwhile, the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party is likely to increase its number in parliament from the current 98, according to a Nikkei forecast.
Losing a majority in parliament would not necessarily lead to a real loss of power for the ruling coalition, but it would force the LDP and Komeito to negotiate with the opposition and smaller parties when voting on certain bills in parliament. The new prime minister will be directly elected by members of the lower house, who will vote for a candidate from each party. The decision to dissolve the lower house was taken by Ishiba, who took over as prime minister after winning the election as LDP chairman. The decline in the popularity rating of Japan's ruling bloc has been linked to a series of financial scandals as well as intra-party infighting.
The Nikkei national telephone survey was conducted on October 15-16 and included more than 165,500 respondents.