Overview
- Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said Japan has conveyed its request to Pyongyang for a summit with Kim Jong Un.
- She pledged to meet directly and pursue concrete results on the abduction issue during her term.
- Japan officially lists 17 people as abducted in the late 1970s and 1980s and suspects additional cases.
- North Korea has not publicly responded to Japan’s outreach as of the latest reports.
- No Japanese prime minister has held such a meeting in more than two decades, and the last breakthrough led to five returns in 2002.