TOKYO
\nJapanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is willing to meet North Korea\u2019s Kim Jong Un \u201cwithout preconditions\u201d, a top government official said Friday.
\nThe prime minister has previously said he was ready to hold talks with Kim, but the reiterated invitation comes after the North Korean leader travelled to Russia to met President Vladimir Putin this week.
\nThat meeting sparked worries of a possible arms agreement after US officials warned Moscow was in search of ammunition to use in the Ukraine conflict.
\n\u201cWe would like to hold high-level discussions under direct control of the prime minister to achieve a summit meeting as soon as possible,\u201d Japan\u2019s Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters at a regular briefing.
\nKishida \u201chas been expressing his determination to directly face\u201d Kim at \u201cany time and without preconditions,\u201d said Matsuno.
\nFollowing a summit with Putin on Wednesday, Kim travelled to Russia\u2019s Komsomolsk-on-Amur, a far eastern industrial city where he reportedly visited a military aviation factory on Friday.
\nLongtime allies Russia and North Korea are both under rafts of global sanctions \u2013 Moscow for its Ukraine conflict and Pyongyang for its nuclear tests.
\nJapan\u2019s Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa told reporters on Thursday that Tokyo was watching the Russia-North Korea talks \u201cwith concerns, including the possibility that it could lead to violations of the Security Council\u2019s ban on all arms-related material transactions with North Korea\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TOKYO Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is willing to meet North Korea\u2019s Kim Jong Un \u201cwithout preconditions\u201d, a top government official said Friday. The prime minister has previously said he was ready to hold talks with Kim, but the reiterated invitation comes after the North Korean leader travelled to Russia to met President Vladimir Putin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356214,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-356189","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n