JAPAN-NORTH KOREA: Ties Take a More Hostile Turn

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, May 9 2002 (IPS) - Japan’s relations with North Korea, never friendly, have moved into more open tensions because Tokyo is fed up with its unsuccessful attempts to woo Pyongyang so far, analysts here say.

“The public mood against the totalitarian state has hardened. Japan’s relations with North Korea, which have, up to now, been sensitive to upsetting the North Koreans, is not going to be same any more,” says Sato Fumihiko, head of Modern Korea Studies Institute.

On Tuesday, Japan’s Coast Guard ended its underwater probe of the wreckage of a suspected North Korean spy ship in the East China Sea. Two decomposed bodies were discovered from the search.

Japan believes the spy ship, which sank after a shootout in December with Japanese patrol vessels, belonged to North Korea. The incident sent shock waves across the country, occurring along with a series of reports of the abductions of Japanese nationals by North Korea.

These abducted Japanese are used to teach the Japanese language and customs to North Korean spies, who then infiltrate Japan to do military surveillance, and to gather information and technology, officials here say.

In response to a wave of public anger , Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has outlined a hard-line stance against North Korea.

“The humanitarian issue is crucial for the Japanese people,” he told Chinese premier Zhu Rongji during his visit to China on Apr. 13, seeking Beijing’s assistance in putting pressure on Pyongyang, with which China wields sizable influence. “We hope the Chinese will press North Korea to settle the issue.”

A new group in the Diet or Parliament was formed last month to develop a new policy in dealing with North Korea.

For the first time, Japanese lawmakers are demanding the immediate prohibition of transfers of cash from Japan to North Korea by individuals and organisations — and the adoption of new laws to prevent resident Koreans from returning to the country after travelling to North Korea.

However, members of the Japan Communist Party and Social Democratic Party do not belong to the new Diet group.

The measures are expected to badly hit economically strapped North Korea. Japanese-Koreans loyal to North Korea transfer billions of dollars to the country through ghost accounts and fraudulent loans from Japanese credit unions.

Sato says the cumulative purpose of these steps is to obtain diplomatic leverage over Pyongyang in terms of diplomatic normalisation talks and to gain information on suspected Japanese abductees. “A hard-line policy will see better results on these issues,” he explains.

Kazuhiro Araki, a spokesman for the National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea, cannot agree more.

“There is no time to lose,” he says. “The only way to bring relief to suffering families who have lost their children to Pyongyang, is to bring the hammer down on the ruling dictatorship.”

Araki adds that a May 1 joint statement issued by Japanese and North Korean Red Cross representatives in Beijing — where the North Korean side pledged to take “necessary measures” in its investigation into missing Japanese nationals — is the result of tough pressure on the part of Tokyo.

While the government says that 11 Japanese have been kidnapped, Araki says the group’s own surveys indicate the actual figure is around 70.

The latest report was the case of Keiko Arimoto, who disappeared in 1983 while studying in Britain. Last month, Megumi Yao, the 46-year-old wife of a Japanese hijacker who fled to North Korea, told the Japanese media here that she had enticed Arimoto to fly with her to the Stalinist state.

Meantime, Araki says supporters of relatives who have missing children will continue to step up pressure on the Japanese government until Pyongyang promises to find a solution.

“Parents are growing old, and some have even died while mourning the loss of their children. Waiting for opportunist North Korea to change its hostility towards Japan, is not going to work any more,” he says.

Japan has not yet signed a peace treaty with North Korea since the end of the Pacific War. Bilateral ties are bogged down over thorny issues such as compensation for Japan’s colonisation of the country decades ago.

In addition, Japan is home to more than 600,000 Koreans, one-third of whom are of North Korean descent. The Chosen Soren, a powerful organisation, is the official representative of Pyongyang in Japan.

Against this backdrop, Japan has followed a carrot-and stick approach toward North Korea.

For example, Japan offered 500,000 tonnes of rice in food aid in 1997 in a bid to improve relations, but was not rewarded either by information on its “missing” nationals by Pyongyang or a pledge to negotiate a peace treaty.

Kazuhisa Ogawa, a professor of international relations, rights activist and supporter of hundreds of Koreans who have been duped to visit North Korea and then not allowed to return, is also calling on Tokyo to increase pressure North Korea to produce information on those abducted.

“North Korea is evil. Japan’s diplomacy must centre more on the human rights aspects of bilateral relations,” he insists.

Still, activists say they face a dilemma. Ogawa, for instance, points to the danger of supporting a hard-line official policy, as reflected in growing calls to strengthen the Japanese military and see a more active role by it.

Koizumi is spearheading a growing call for changing the Japanese Constitution and boosting the role of the Self-Defense Forces, which are restricted by Japan’s post-war charter to defending the country.

Japan’s Defense Agency has identified North Korea as the biggest threat to the country’s national security.

“I am against the changing of Japan’s Peace Constitution. But at the same time, when considering the suffering inflicted by that government on its own people, and the abduction of Japanese, there is no way out but force,” Ogawa points out. “The situation poses a terrible dilemma to the Japanese.”