Japanese Cabinet Secretary General Yoshihide Suga also reiterated that Tokyo is carefully collecting and analysing information on possible health problems of DPRK leader Kim Jong-Un.
The Japanese government seeks to normalise relations with the DPRK provided that the problems related to its nuclear missile program and the past abductions of Japanese citizens by the Pyongyang secret services are comprehensively resolved. This was announced on Wednesday at a press conference in Tokyo by Cabinet Secretary General Yoshihide Suga.
“We would like to draw a line under the unfortunate past of our relationship”, – he said. – “The Japanese government’s course towards normalising relations with the DPRK remains unchanged, provided that the problems related to its nuclear missile programme and the abduction of Japanese citizens are comprehensively resolved. Tokyo is carefully collecting and analysing information on possible health problems for DPRK leader Kim Jong-Un”, – he said, but declined to comment further.
Earlier, the U.S. television company CNN, citing an unnamed source in the U.S. administration, reported that the U.S. is studying the intelligence data on the deteriorating health of DPRK Chairman Kim Jong-un. She did not provide any confirmation of this information. The South Korean authorities, in turn, stated that there were no data on Kim Jong-un’s disease. The Chinese Foreign Ministry also doubted CNN’s source of information. The Western and South Korean media have previously distributed unverified information about the DPRK leadership on numerous occasions with reference to informed sources, but this has not been confirmed.
On April 16, the Central Korean Telegraph Agency (CTAK) informed that the day before Kim Jong-un had not attended the inauguration of the 108th birthday anniversary of his grandfather and founder Kim Il-sung in Kimsun Palace of the Sun for the first time in many years. Kim Jong-un has not been in public since April 11, when he held a meeting of the Political Bureau of the Korean Labor Party’s Central Committee on domestic policy issues.