North
Korea targets reset in Japan
relations By Kosuke Takahashi
TOKYO - North Korea has found a good
fishing spot in the troubled waters of Japan-South
Korea relations.
The Japanese government
on Tuesday announced it had agreed to hold
bilateral talks with North Korea in China on
August 29 over the repatriation of Japanese
remains from the North. If they go ahead as
planned, these would be the first government-level
negotiations between the countries in four years.
By approaching Tokyo, the North appears to
be relying on its favored tactic of exploiting
diplomatic divides among its adversaries.
Relations between Japan and South Korea have
plummeted in recent days over a territorial
dispute.
The announcement of Japan-North
Korea talks comes just four
days after South Korean
President Lee Myung-bak made a controversial visit
to disputed islets called Dokdo by South Koreans
and Takeshima by the Japanese in the Sea of Japan
(known in Korea as the East Sea). (See Lee
puts Japan-Korea relations on the rocks, Asia
Times Online, Aug 10, '12)
Lee also urged
Japan to redress the issue of so-called "comfort
women," mostly Korean, who were forced to become
sex slaves during Japan's Asia-Pacific War
(1930-1945) in an annual speech on Wednesday to
mark Korea's liberation day from Japan.
A
day earlier, Lee had said that Japan's Emperor
Akihito should offer his heartfelt apologies to
Koreans who died and underwent suffering under
Japanese colonial rule if the emperor wants to pay
a visit to Seoul, further enflaming nationalistic
sentiments.
Japanese Foreign Minister
Koichiro Gemba on Wednesday said Tokyo has
protested against South Korean President Lee's
remarks on the Japanese emperor.
"Japan
has never taken up the emperor's visit to South
Korea," Gemba told reporters."In such a situation,
it's hard to understand the president's remarks.
It's extremely regrettable."
In response
to Lee's island visit, Gemba has also said that
Japan will consider taking the matter to the
International Court of Justice. "We would
like to take the step in the not-too-distant
future. Until now, the Japanese government has
considered what impact such action may have on
Japan-South Korea ties," Gemba said.
Although the Japanese government has
notified South Korea of Tokyo's upcoming talks
with North Korea, Seoul must have mixed feelings
about the proposed negotiations between Pyongyang
and Tokyo.
The diplomatic opening between
Japan and North Korea follows a meeting between
the Japanese and the North Korean Red Cross
societies in Beijing on August 9-10 - their first
in 10 years. Officials from the charities
discussed the return of Japanese remains and
possible visits by relatives to the graves of
loved ones in North Korea.
Tokyo likely
wants to break a long-running impasse over the
issue of alleged abductions of Japanese citizens
in the 1970s and 1980s by North Korean agents,
amid public criticism that its efforts to resolve
the issue have been insufficient.
"Not
only the issue of remains but also the abduction
issue should be included in the agenda of the
talks," Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura
said at a press conference on Tuesday.
The
government-level talks will be the first since the
ruling Democratic Party of Japan came to power in
2009 and the first for new North Korean leader Kim
Jong-eun, who succeeded his father Kim Jong-il
after his death in December 2011.
"For
Pyongyang, the US is the hardest nation to
convince to start negotiations, as the current US
administration has adopted its so-called policy of
strategic patience," a US policy that stresses
Pyongyang has to make the first move by making
concessions over the regime's nuclear and missile
programs, Masao Okonogi, emeritus professor at
Keio University in Tokyo and a noted expert on the
affairs of the Korean Peninsula, told Asia Times
Online on Wednesday.
"To goad the US
towards negotiations, Pyongyang has to deal with
South Korea beforehand. To goad South Korea to
negotiations, it has to deal with Japan. Pyongyang
currently cannot deal with the US and Seoul, which
faces presidential elections and possible changes
of government," he said.
About 34,600
Japanese soldiers, colonists and their families
are believed to have died of hunger and disease in
the aftermath of the Second World War in what is
now North Korea. Many were escaping from the
former Manchuria, a puppet state founded by the
Japanese in 1932 in Northeast China, as the Soviet
Army invaded there in 1945. The remains of 13,000
people have been repatriated to Japan but more
than 20,000 remains are still buried in about 70
graves in North Korea, according to the Japanese
government.
Kosuke Takahashi is
a Tokyo-based Japanese journalist. His twitter is
@TakahashiKosuke
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