North Korea will continue to ignore Japan unless Tokyo halts hostilities against its neighbor, such as large-scale military drills and efforts to boost military readiness, the isolated nation's state media has said.
Japan has been eyeing prospects for a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, at which Prime Minister Shinzo Abe hopes to tackle the issue of Japanese citizens abducted decades ago by the North.
Despite Kim's summits with the leaders of China, South Korea and the United States in a flurry of diplomatic activity over the past year, no date has been set for one with Japan.