FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Japan govt faces N Korea abductions dilemma

Japan govt faces N Korea abductions dilemma

The Japan government now faces the dilemma of how to step up pressure against North Korea without closing the door to negotiations, after the reclusive country decided to postpone its report on the investigation into Japanese abductees.

The timing of the notification to Japan of the decision was important — Tokyo received the message from Pyongyang on Thursday, two days before the one-year anniversary of the launch of the investigation. The prospect of solving the abduction issue has become increasingly obscure.
The government must now make a tough call. It plans to induce North Korea to take concrete actions on the issue by hinting at the reinforcement of its sanctions, but if it implements additional sanctions, the action may spur North Korea to sever negotiations on the issue.
Japan has been demanding that North Korea submit the report, but North Korea’s message that it would postpone it was delivered on Thursday night to the Japanese Embassy in Beijing.
“We are sincerely conducting a comprehensive investigation on all Japanese nationals, but it will take a little more time,” the message read.
The next morning, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and Eriko Yamatani, the minister in charge of the abduction issue, to step up contacts with North Korea on the issue.
The Foreign Ministry sent a reply to the message in the morning, demanding that North Korea resolve the issue, including the return of all abductees, through swift investigations.
Tokyo has become increasingly distrustful of Pyongyang because of its failure to report on the investigation in the one year since it launched the investigation in July 2014.
Initially, the government believed it would not take long for North Korea to report on the abduction issue once Pyongyang decided to do so.
“North Korea is supposed to have abductees under its complete control, so it’s up to the decision of its leader to make a report on the issue,” a source knowledgeable about Japan-North Korea relations said.
Concerns are spreading in the Japanese government over the political situation in North Korea. “Kim Jong-un has been strengthening his reign of terror as seen in a string of purges of high-ranking officials.
So there is a possibility that an official in charge of the investigation is afraid of asking for instructions,” a senior government official said.
However, the fact that the North Korean government sent a message prior to the one-year anniversary of the launch of the investigation implies Pyongyang’s willingness to continue negotiations on the abduction issue, a source knowledgeable about Japan-North Korea relations said.
In April, Pyongyang denounced Japan for its raid on a house of Ho Jong Man, head of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon), over illegal imports of matsutake mushrooms from North Korea.
“The situation has made it difficult to conduct government-level negotiations,” Pyongyang said to Japan. However, even after the incident, the country has taken part in secret negotiations.
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