TOKYO, March 25, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Monday called top-level talks with North Korea "important" after Kim Jong Un's powerful sister said Kishida had requested a summit.

"For Japan-North Korea relations, top-level talks are important to resolve issues such as the abduction issue," Kishida said in parliament, referring to kidnappings that took place in the 1970s and '80s. "This is why we have been making various approaches to North Korea at the level directly under my control, as I have said in the past."