by Pino Cazzaniga PIME

Seoul (AsiaNews) – Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will be in Pyongyang May 22 to conduct talks with North Korean president, Kim Jong-Il, for the repatriation of 8 relatives of 5 Japanese formerly held prisoner there. The 5 former captives, abducted to teach Japanese language and culture to North Korean spies, have already earned their freedom after a previous successful visit by Koizumi. Now the Japanese Premier is fighting to have their family members repatriated.  

The announcement of his trip, which had been rumored for more than a few days, came as a surprise to people in Japan and abroad. Indeed it is strange, if not exceptional, that a Japanese prime minister visits a country 2 times in 2 years with which his government has not diplomatic relations.

Koizumi had first gone to North Korea in 2002, a trip that was labeled "historic". On that trip the leaders of both countries met and signed a statement which, in effect, has acted as a road map to normalize relations between Japan and North Korea. 

Positive international reactions

Koizumi's decision has been positively received by the "Five Nations" (i.e. the United States, South Korea, China, Japan and Russia), which have committed themselves to promoting dialog with the North Korean government. Both Seoul and Washington expressed significant reactions.

The reelected South Korean president, Roh Moo-hyun, applauds Koizumi's move since he favors of an active and aggressive approach toward building relations with North Korea. For American president George Bush, who has taken a tough stance, too, but shown himself to be inefficient and not knowing what to do, a Japan which is on peaceful terms with North Korea would mean having an efficacious negotiator with Pyongyang.   

Even the European Union, in all likelihood, shares the same sense of satisfaction that many feel for Koizumi's initiatives. On the inauguration of the EU expansion this past May 1, Ambassador Dorian Prince, representing the European Commission in Korean peninsula, said in an interview in  The Korean Times: "In my opinion, the message that the EU offers to nations outside it, and particularly (North and South) Korea, is that historic divisions can be overcome." "It is possible that sovereign nations can work together to build up peace and prosperity in their region," the ambassador said. 

 

Captured to teach Japanese to spies

Koizumi's first North Korean trip led to the repatriation of Japanese citizens captured years earlier by North Korean intelligence. The 5 were part of a group of some 20 others captured, who had disappeared in the 1970s and 1980s. There was a large number of women among them.

The fact that most of them probably lived along the Sea of Japan led their relatives and police to suspect that they had been abducted by North Koreans. Their suspicions were confirmed in 2002 following Koizumi's talks with North Korea's "beloved leader".

It was then that Kim Jong-il admitted that for decades 13 Japanese citizens had been held captive in North Koran. He said they were used to teach Japanese language and culture to intelligence trainees. Five of them were allowed to make "a trip" to Japan. Why just five? This was so, since the others, Kim Jong-il said, had already died of illnesses or in accidents. 

Yet the return of the 5 captives to Japan was not such a happy event, since they had to leave behind their children and, in one case, husband in North Korea.

Backed by a steadfast movement of Japanese citizens, the 5 put pressure on their government to fight for the repatriation of their family members. Since then, however, the wall between Tokyo and Pyongyang, which Koizumi had began to be torn down, became as impenetrable as steel.

Since that time North Korea has accused Japan of going back on its promise to return the 5 former captives, who it said were merely allowed to "visit" their homeland. And for its part Tokyo has taken legal steps to prevent a North Korean ferry liners from docking at Japanese ports.   

Koizumi's initiative

In breaching the barrier again between the two governments, if not to totally dispel it, Japan needs strong international support.

Koizumi got such backing by making the issue a topic at the last "Six Nations" summit, which met to discuss strategies to convince North Korea to dismantle its nuclear arms program. But such talks went nowhere in terms of resolving Japan's concern about the captives. Diplomatic, official and secret efforts were equally useless. Hence Koizumi's decision to travel to North Korea to resolve the matter in person.  

There are some who view his trip as part of a key campaign move.

"The ambition of using progress in talks with North Korea as a campaign pitch in July's elections is one reason to explain the hurried Japanese-North Korean summit," a journalist wrote in the Mainichi daily.

Yet, generally speaking, Japanese media positively received the Premier's initiative. Koizumi's move is viewed certainly risky and bold, yet not rash.  

And what does the North Korean government have to say? Just having accepted the Japanese prime minister's proposal is a positive sign. However Pyongyang does well to hide any expression of satisfaction. It would never lose face in front of its own citizenry.

It was last May 9 when the two parties were hammering out the detains of the big meeting that the North Korean press launched a volley of accusations against the Japanese government for its past atrocities committed on the peninsula and its own nuclear arms policies.

According to Yohnap, a South Korean news agency, the accusations were well-calculated propaganda. In reality, experts say, moves made by the North Korean government indicate its willingness to improve relations with Japan, since such such accusations are intensified toward other countries when Pyongyang is about to make important foreign policy decisions.  

For Koizumi any failure to reopen discussion with North Korea, especially concerning abductions of Japanese citizens, would be a hard blow. For North Korea, any occasion for dialog is a golden opportunity.

The former vice chairman of the Japanese Liberal Democrat Party, Taku Yamasaki, once said when meeting with the North Korean foreign minister, Song Il-ho, in Dalian (China): "Koizumi's term as prime minister expires in two years. If diplomatic relations are not normalized in this period, the Pyongyang Declaration will lose all its value. Is this what you all want?"    

• japan
• north
• korea
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