Rescue Abductees 救う会 全国協議会

Japanese government is suspected of making compromises in the demands to North Korea, reports Yomiuri.

Govt compromise on abductees? / Cabinet drops handover of N. Korean abductors from list of demands
The Yomiuri Shimbun

The new government led by Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has removed the handover of North Korean agents who abducted Japanese citizens from the six-point government policy on the abduction issue, government sources said Tuesday.

Hiroshi Nakai, chairman of the National Public Safety Commission, who is responsible for the abduction issue, said, "Our stance of demanding the handover of the abductors has not changed."

But a fear is spreading among family members of abductees who said that they did not understand the attitude of the Hatoyama administration toward the issue, because the action can be interpreted as a concession to North Korea in future negotiations.

At a meeting in October 2006, the then Liberal Democratic Party-led government's team on the abduction issue decided on a six-point action plan.

They also included implementation of sanctions such as ban on entry to Japanese ports of North Korean ship Man Gyong Bong-92 and collaboration over the issue with the United Nations and other concerned countries.

In June 2008, then Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura remarked that three demands contained in the six points were essential at the House of Representatives special committee on the abduction issue.

The three demands were the handover of persons who actually conducted the abductions; securing the safety of abductees and their return to Japan; and unveiling the truth about the abduction incidents.

The previous administration regarded the three demands as the bottom line for Japan, points on which there can be no compromise in negotiations with North Korea.

However, handover of the abductors was excluded from among the key points in a Cabinet decision document drawn up on Oct. 13, when the Hatoyama administration decided to set up a new team to deal with abduction issues.

At a session of the lower house special committee on abduction issues held Nov. 26, Keiji Furuya, an LDP lawmaker, pointed out that the handover demand had been dropped.

In reply, Nakai said: "It doesn't mean [the government] has retreated. First of all, we'll work hard to achieve the two main points [return of the abductees and revealing the truth]."

Furuya continued to criticize the move, saying, "You can't avoid criticism that you are acting weakly," but Nakai only repeated that the administration would do its best.

Concerning the Hatoyama administration's policy toward North Korea, DPJ Secretary General Ichiro Ozawa reportedly told the South Korean Democratic Party leader during his visit to Japan last month, "We have to decide how to improve relations between Japan and North Korea without being handcuffed by how to resolve the abduction problem."

Even in the government and among Diet members, some expressed concern that the administration may put higher priority on normalization of diplomatic ties with North Korea.

Teruaki Masumoto, secretary general of the Japanese Association of the Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea, said: "Even two months after the power shift, there have been no signs of a start in negotiations with North Korea. In the first place, it seems that the government's policy over the abduction issue has not been firm, and so we feel anxious."

(Dec. 16, 2009)