Japan stresses abduction issue at APEC

Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura on Tuesday stressed the importance of resolving the issue of North Korea's abductions of Japanese nationals when he met his counterparts and senior officials from 11 Asia-Pacific nations over dinner in Sydney, Japanese officials said.
Representatives from many of the countries, in response, expressed high hopes that Japan-North Korea relations will move forward, including the pending abduction issue, toward normalizing diplomatic ties, the officials said.

Abe gives himself pat on the back over contribution to G-8 summit

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday claimed that Japan made a "significant contribution" to the just ended Group of Eight summit and pledged to continue taking up the issue of climate change as a major topic next year when Japan takes over as host of the summit from Germany.

Giving himself a pat on the back, a beaming Abe told a press conference that he was "very satisfied" that discussions at the summit for a consensus on emissions reduction "were centered on my proposal" and that Japan's initiative was included in the summit declaration.

Abe, who made his debut at the summit in the German resort of Heiligendamm, also emphasized his leadership in guiding discussions on the North Korean nuclear, missile and abduction issues.

"I won the understanding and support of the other leaders and we were able to send a strong message in the Chair's Summary that included a demand for an early resolution of the abduction issue," Abe said.

Abe's carefully scripted language, including the repeated use of "I," which is rare in Japanese, reflects the premier's eagerness to impress the Japanese public with his achievements at the summit in hopes of improving his ailing support ratings just a month ahead of a crucial House of Councillors election.

"I will ensure that next year's summit will be managed so that it is absolutely environmentally friendly," Abe said. "I also hope to make Japan's superb technology and expertise in energy saving a showcase, so I hope you all will come and enjoy it too."

Although Abe promised Japan will "do the best" to meet its obligation to cut emissions under the Kyoto Protocol, the country is in reality nowhere close to meeting it. While it is obliged to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 6% from 1990 levels by 2012, emissions actually increased by 8% in 2005.

Japan will host next year's summit of the world's top industrial powers at the Lake Toya hot-spring resort in Hokkaido from July 7-9, 2008.

North Korean female agent linked to abduction of 2 kids ordered terror attack, police say

Japanese police have learned from testimonies that a woman believed to be the leader of North Korean agents involved in a 1974 abduction case in Japan allegedly ordered another agent to carry out a terrorist attack in South Korea in the 1970s, investigative sources said Saturday.

In the alleged abduction case of two children born to a Japanese mother and Korean father who went missing in 1973, the police have found a high possibility that a husband of the 59-year-old female agent knew of the kidnapping plan, the sources said.

The sources said the police obtained the testimonies from people related to Universe Trading — a now-defunct trading company in Tokyo's Shinagawa believed to have served as a base for covert North Korean operations in Japan. The woman also worked there.

Police believe the terrorism order was based on an instruction from North Korea, and came shortly after the failed assassination attempt in August 1974 of then South Korean President Park Chung Hee.

According to the testimonies, the female agent ordered a male agent who worked under her to "do something like that" after the failed assassination incident, the sources said.

The male agent left Japan in 1978 after disappearing from the company because of what was then explained as his increasing distrust of the female agent.

In the assassination attempt on Aug 15, 1974, Mun Se Gwang, a South Korean resident of Japan, shot at the president and his wife at a ceremony marking the 29th anniversary of the liberation of Korea from Japanese occupation. Park survived, but his wife and a female high school student died. Mun was sentenced to death and executed later that year.

The male agent is believed to have been involved in the suspected killing of Hideko Watanabe, the Japanese mother of the two children who went missing together in 1973.

The man had allegedly told acquaintances about circumstances before and after the killing, the sources said.

The sources said the husband, who married the female agent after the abduction incident occurred in 1974, had told workers of Universe Trading and other people about the kidnapping.

The man told them of such abduction circumstances as the children being given sleeping pills but waking up in the middle of being taken to North Korea on a spy ship, and the children having bad motion sickness, the sources said.

Given such testimonies from related people, police suspect the man was either directly involved in the abduction or received detailed reports.

The female agent and the man were allegedly in an intimate relationship before their marriage, the sources said. They left Japan in 1979 and there are no confirmed records of their return, leading the police to believe that they are now living in North Korea, the sources said.

The female agent is suspected of ordering her group of agents to abduct the two children in 1974 after receiving instructions in North Korea where she went after leaving Japan with the passport of another person, the sources said.

On Thursday, police designated two children as having been abducted by North Korean agents, and set up an investigation headquarters to start a full-fledged probe into the case.

The two children are Ko Gyong Mi, then a 6-year-old girl whose Japanese name is Kiyomi, and Ko Gang, then a 3-year-old boy whose Japanese name is Tsuyoshi.

They were born to Ko Dae Gi, a pro-Pyongyang Korean resident in Japan, and his Japanese wife Watanabe, who was 32 when she went missing.

Watanabe is suspected of having been murdered before the children were taken to North Korea.

Ko Dae Gi, who had gone missing earlier, worked for Universe Trading, and is believed to have led the group there before the female agent took over the leading role.

Washington Post criticizes Abe's handling of sex slave issue

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's campaign to roll back Japan's acceptance of responsibility for the abduction, rape and sexual enslavement of women during World War II is "odd" and "offensive," the Washington Post said in its editorial on Saturday.

In a piece titled "Shinzo Abe's Double Talk," the U.S. daily criticized Abe's attitude over the so-called "comfort women" issue while comparing it with his enthusiasm in resolving North Korea's abduction of Japanese nationals and refusing discussions with Pyongyang until it provides information on abductees certified by the Japanese government. "If Mr. Abe seeks international support in learning the fate of Japan's kidnapped citizens, he should straightforwardly accept responsibility for Japan's own crimes and apologize to the victims he has slandered," the editorial said.

Japan, N Korea blame each other for breakdown of talks

Japan and North Korea ended two days of talks on normalizing diplomatic relations without progress on Thursday, blaming each other for their failure to solve thorny bilateral rows and falling short of setting the next date for the negotiations.

Koichi Haraguchi, Japan's chief representative at the talks, and his North Korean counterpart Song Il Ho said major differences remained over bilateral issues, including a bitter dispute over Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s. "I find it regrettable that specific solutions were not reached for the progress of Japan-North Korea relations during the current talks," he said. At a separate news conference, Song also said that "a big gap" remains between the two sides and that was the reason "nothing was reached" in the negotiations.

apan-N Korea talks to continue despite snag over abductions

Japan and North Korea are set Thursday to meet for their second day of talks on normalizing diplomatic relations, after their bitter row over past abductions of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents triggered a stall on the first day. Koichi Haraguchi, Japan's delegate, and his North Korean counterpart Song Il Ho are due to meet at the North Korean Embassy in Hanoi to discuss both the abduction dispute as well as issues linked to Japan's 1910-1945 colonization of the Korean Peninsula.

North Korea boycotted the afternoon session of the first day of the normalization talks, in objection to Tokyo's demands that it reinvestigate past abductions of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents. Pyongyang eventually agreed to return to the negotiating table Thursday after informal consultations with Japan, according to Japanese diplomats. In Wednesday's talks, Japan urged North Korea to reinvestigate the cases of 12 abduction victims on Japan's official list, or all of the listed victims except the five who returned to Japan in 2002.

Japan-North Korea normalization talks begin

Japanese and North Korean diplomats began two-day talks on Wednesday with both sides calling for a solution to thorny bilateral issues that have prevented them from normalizing diplomatic relations.

Koichi Haraguchi, Japan's representative at the talks, and his North Korean counterpart Song Il Ho met at the Japanese Embassy in Hanoi in the morning for talks that are first expected to focus on a bitter row over past abductions of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents. "We plan to work...under the policy of aiming for the normalization of diplomatic ties based on a comprehensive solution to the abduction, nuclear and missile issues as well as the settling of the unfortunate past," Haraguchi said at the outset of the talks, which was open to the press.

Japs won't give 'even 1 yen' to N Korea unless abductions resolved: Aso

Japan will not give North Korea "even 1 yen" in aid unless the issue of Japanese citizens abducted by the North is resolved, Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Saturday before the two countries hold normalization talks next week. He added that Japan is ready to maintain economic sanctions on Pyongyang including the ban on port calls in Japan by the North Korean ferry Mangyongbong-92.

The remarks come before the two countries restart talks on normalizing diplomatic relations in Hanoi on Wednesday under the framework agreed during last month's six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear development programs. While experts are voicing concern that Japan may be isolated in the nuclear talks by sticking to the abduction issue, Aso flatly denied this, saying, "Japan will never be isolated."

Gov't protests weekly's report on 'abduction attempt'

The government protested Monday at a report by the major weekly Shukan Gendai that said Kaoru Hasuike, one of the Japanese who were abducted by North Korea in 1978, had secretly come back to Japan and tried in 1986 to take a school teacher to North Korea. "The report was totally groundless and is utterly deplorable," the government's special task force on the abduction issue said in a statement addressed to the weekly's publisher Kodansha Ltd.

Hasuike denied the allegations and sent a statement of protest, saying the article was a "preposterous and fabricated story." The article in the weekly's latest edition, which hit the stands Monday, was based on an interview with a former school teacher in Aichi Prefecture who said that a man resembling Hasuike appeared on the school premises on March 18, 1986, and tried to persuade him to go to North Korea.

Megumi Yokota film opens in Japan

A critically acclaimed documentary telling the story of a Japanese girl kidnapped by North Korean agents who became a symbol of one of Japan's most thorny diplomatic issues, hit screens across Japan Saturday. "Abduction: The Megumi Yokota Story" was released in 37 movie theaters in 18 prefectures, including Hokkaido, Tokyo, Kanagawa, Osaka, Hiroshima and Fukuoka. It will be shown in 20 other prefectures as well by the mid-February.

Directed by Canadian journalists Chris Sheridan and his wife, Patty Kim, the film details what Megumi's parents, Shigeru and Sakie, have been through since their 13-year-old daughter's 1977 abduction and their struggle to enlist Japanese government help in rescuing her and other abductees. The parents made speeches Saturday morning at a theater in Tokyo's Shibuya area, where the 200 seats were full from the day's first showing.

The 85-minute film won Best Documentary at the San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival and the Audience Awards at the Slamdance Film Festival in Utah, among others, earlier this year.