Nuclear declaration spells diplomatic dilemma for Japan

Jun 26, 2008, 10:49 GMT

Kyoto, Japan - Japan had to grudgingly accept changing baselines regarding its abducted citizens, a long-time key foreign policy concern, as North Korea on Thursday handed over its nuclear declaration.

North Korea's long-overdue full declaration of its nuclear programmes and stockpiles, while an important step towards resolving one of the world's most pressing nuclear proliferation concerns, puts Japan's government in a diplomatic dilemma.

'If the nuclear problem will be resolved, isn't that something desirable, also for our country? ... It's something we should welcome,' Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said Wednesday.

While Tokyo welcomed the progress made in the six-party talks, some fear that Pyongyang's subsequent removal from the United States' terrorism blacklist could spell an end to Japan's ability to exert pressure on the communist state.

'From Japan's viewpoint, if it (the US) is to delist North Korea as a state sponsor of terrorism, we hope it will be used sufficiently as a bargaining chip to push forward the abduction issue,' Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said.

At the Group of Eight (G8) foreign ministers meeting in Kyoto, Komura said he expected a 'strong message' from the international community for the 'early resolution of humanitarian concerns, including abductions.'

Confirming long-held Japanese suspicions, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il admitted in 2002 to the abduction of 13 Japanese citizens in the 1970s and '80s.

The Japanese were kidnapped to train North Korean agents in Japanese behaviour. The youngest victim, Megumi Yokota, was only 13 years old.

North Korea's regime later allowed five victims to return. The others were dead, Pyongyang claimed, indicating it regarded the chapter as closed.

The victims' families, who also believe there were at least 17 abductees, refused to let the issue die, their pressure turning the case into a focal point for Japan's foreign policy.

Public emotions ran high in 2004, when North Korea handed over what it said were the remains of Megumi, who was reported to have committed suicide in 1994. Japanese experts disputed the claims, saying the remains were of two different people, none of them the girl's.

In the run-up to the G8 foreign ministers meeting, Tokyo made it clear it saw a resolution of the abduction issue a necessary prerequisite for normalizing relations with Pyongyang, nuclear declaration or no.

Japan seems, however, increasingly isolated in its campaign, its calls to keep North Korea blacklisted increasingly unheard, and key allies like to US only paying lip service supporting its concerns.

During the six-party talks, other participants criticized Japan of endangering the negotiation progress with its rigid position.

Victims' groups urged the government not to lighten its stance, putting the Japanese administration in the dilemma of having to choose between the necessities of international diplomacy and domestic pressure.

For the time being Tokyo seems set to accept the inevitable, bowing to the bigger international goal to persuade North Korea to part with its nuclear weapons.