JAPAN-NORTH KOREA: Angry Japanese Demand Sanctions

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Feb 11 2005 (IPS) - North Korea’s declaration that it has nuclear weapons and was pulling out of multilateral disarmament talks, has prompted a group representing the families of Japanese citizens abducted by Pyongyang to reiterate their call for the imposition of sanctions against the communist nation.

North Korea’s declaration on Thursday that it has nuclear weapons and was pulling out of multilateral disarmament talks, has prompted a group representing the families of Japanese citizens abducted by Pyongyang to reiterate their call – backed by a petition signed by more than five million Japanese – for the imposition of sanctions against the communist nation.

Late Thursday, the Association of Families of People Abducted by North Korea issued a statement saying the North Korean government was resorting to ”blackmail” and called on Japan’s Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to take a firm stand by using economic sanctions.

This is the second time this month such a call has been made.

On Tuesday the group delivered to the prime minister’s office a petition with more than five million signatures demanding sanctions against North Korea.

The Japanese public was outraged with North Korea in November after the bones returned by Pyongyang, of two missing Japanese abducted more than two decades ago, turned out to be that of different people. Pyongyang admitted abducting the two in the 1970s and 1980s to teach its spies about Japan, in order for them to infiltrate into the country.

The Koizumi government was on Thursday, before North Korea made its declaration, ready to provide DNA information to Pyongyang to prove that the remains given to them in November were of the wrong people.

”We have thoroughly prepared the documents to counter North Korea’s claims,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda told reporters. ”We’ll also repeat our request for North Korea to provide information on those still missing.”

In a dramatic announcement, North Korea said it had developed nuclear weapons to protect itself against a U.S. attack. It also rejected the second administration of U.S. President George W Bush and added it would no longer engage in the six-party dialogue over its nuclear weapons drive.

The six-party talks include, in addition to North Korea, China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, and the United States.

The North Korean foreign ministry statement carried by the official ‘KCNA’ news agency also said the country would seek to strengthen its nuclear arsenal and accused the United States of plotting to overthrow its government.

”The latest statement from Pyongyang is a card the reclusive regime is using to prevent Japan from imposing economic sanctions on the country. But this power game is likely to harden the government and public stance on the abduction issue that haunts Japan,” Koichi Ishiyama, an international relations expert at Toin University in Yokohama, told IPS.

”It’s the usual game we have seen before,” he added. ”When North Korea feels the heat, it falls back on its nuclear programme as a threat and most of the time it works.”

Hidekazu Araki, a spokesman for the group representing families of the abductees said the association would force Tokyo to slap economic sanctions against Pyongyang.

Araki estimates there are hundreds of Japanese who have been kidnapped by North Korea in the past and letting go of this latest upheaval will send the message of ”a weak Japan once again”.

But Akira Chiba, press spokesperson at the Foreign Ministry, told IPS that Japan will not impose economic sanctions, even though the public has been calling for them.

On Friday Prime Minister Koizumi reiterated his intentions to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear development programme.

”We are going to persuade North Korea by arguing that the scrapping of nuclear programs would best serve its interests,” Koizumi told reporters during a visit to Sapporo. ”We will also ask (North Korea) return to the talks above all.”

Koizumi indicated he was cautious about slapping sanctions and said he needed to know what kinds of effects it would have on North Korea.

Nonetheless, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has not ruled out sanctions.

”We have a working plan for our next stage of action,” the LDP Secretary General Tsutomu Takebe told ‘The Asian Wall Street Journal’.

One of the trump cards Japan might use against North Korea, falling short of sanctions, is trade.

In March a technical law on oil spills comes into effect, requiring vessels from certain countries to be insured against shipwreck. But most North Korean ships seldom have insurance and this will give the Japanese an opportunity to turn their vessels away.

Despite Japan and North Korea not having diplomatic ties, North Korean merchant vessels frequently visit Japanese ports usually bringing in seafood and mushrooms and taking back used cars and second-hand machinery.

In December, Japan already moved to give it more leeway to impose economic sanctions against North Korea after the Diet approved an amendment to the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Control Law.

Under the revised law, Japan can unilaterally ban cash remittances, a major source of hard currency for North Korea, restrict bilateral trade and freeze North Korean assets in Japan.