North Korea's nuclear 'deal' leaves Japan feeling nervous
by Richard Lloyd
Japan reacted anxiously yesterday to reports that the United States
is to remove North Korea from a list of terrorist states, amid concerns
that Tokyo is being sidelined in the rush to a Korean peace agreement.
The US Government contradicted earlier North Korean claims that it
had agreed to remove the Stalinist dictatorship's designation as a
terrorist state and to lift economic sanctions, as part of talks aimed
at disarming Pyongyang of its nuclear weapons. It said that such a step
would depend on measures by the North Koreans to dismantle their nuclear
plants, as agreed in bilateral talks earlier this week.
Discussion of such a measure has caused nervousness in Tokyo, which
fears that in the gathering momentum of the North Korean nuclear talks
the US will neglect Japan's greatest concern - the fate of Japanese
abducted by North Korea during the Cold War.
Yesterday Japanese and US diplomats did their best to smooth over
what threatens to become a divisive issue in the already complex
negotiations.
"The United States has notified us that it will not carry forward the
US-North Korea relationship by sacrificing the Japan-US relationship,"
Nobutaka Machimura, the Japanese Foreign Minister, said in remarks that
left no doubt how much is at stake for Japan.
As the leaders of 21 Asia-Pacific nations gather for a summit meeting
in Australia this weekend, amongthem George Bush and Shinzo Abe, the
Japanese Prime Minister, there will be intense diplomatic lobbying over
an issue that threatens to cause friction between East Asia's two
most-powerful allies.
During the 1970s and 1980s at least 13, and perhaps dozens of
Japanese, were snatched from lonely beaches and taken to North Korea to
serve as language teachers to espionage agents. After Kim Jong Il, the
North Korean leader, owned up to the abductions, five were returned, but
his refusal to account for the fate of the rest has outraged Japanese
public opinion.
The families of the abductees have become celebrities, constantly
interviewed in the media, and the campaign to return home their loved
ones has become one of the motors of Japanese domestic politics, which
no government can afford not to take seriously.
As a rich neighbour of North Korea, with a strategic stake in the
region, it has always been assumed that Japan would play an important
role in any disarmament agreement, covering much of its cost - but Tokyo
insists that there will be no Japanese contribution until the many
questions about the abductions are answered.
As a result, Tokyo has found itself increasingly isolated in the past
few months. At the end of last year the Bush Administration abandoned a
long-held principle and embarked on one-to-one talks with North Korea
after years of fruitless multilateral negotiation.
In February, in talks bringing together China, Russia, and South
Korea as well as North Korea, the US and Japan, a complicated series of
steps were agreed by which Pyongyang would disarm in return for aid and
diplomatic recognition.
Privately, the other participants in the Six Party Talks have
expressed irritation at Japan's obsession with the abduction issue. Now
Japan fears that with the realistic prospect of a settlement, its
greatest concern is being forgotten.
Timesonline, UK |