January 23, 1999
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| January 23, 1999 | atimes.com | |
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| The Koreas Secret North Korea contact for LDP A ruling Liberal Democratic Party politician has met unofficially with a seniorPyongyang official in Beijing in a bid to reopen channels with the reclusivestate, Asahi Shimbun reported Thursday, quoting unnamed sources. The paper's sources that a Beijing meeting between Masaaki Nakayama and an unnamed North Korean official came about after a December session in New York between aForeign Ministry official and a U.N. representative of the Democratic People'sRepublic of Korea (North Korea). But Nakayama denied meeting with a North Korean official, calling his trip toBeijing a private one, Asahi reported. In New York, a ministry official, the head of the North East Asia division, metin December with a Pyongyang official, after he attended talks with theUnited States and the Republic of Korea (South Korea) to discuss the NorthKorea situation. Through these meetings, Tokyo tried to re-establish a channel of communication with Pyongyang, Asahi's sources said. Official contacts with the communist nation were severed after Pyongyanglobbed a ballistic missile over Japan in August. However, the meetings have so far failed to draw a positive response fromNorth Korea, the paper's sources said. At the Beijing meeting last week, the LDP's Nakayama relayed to anexecutive member of the Asia Pacific Committee of the DPRK the messagefrom Tokyo that Japan is ready to resume talks with Pyongyang, the sources said. Nakayama met with the North Korean official at the request of PrimeMinister Keizo Obuchi, the sources told Asahi. Nakayama is believed to have been developing contacts with the NorthKorean government. He visited Pyongyang last year as the leader of an LDPdelegation to discuss bilateral problems such as the alleged abduction ofJapanese nationals by North Korea. The Japanese government has moved to reopen a channel of communicationwith Pyongyang because the absence of contacts had deprived Tokyo ofdiplomatic ways to deal with North Korea, which has increased its negativerhetoric against Japan in recent months, Asahi said. Obuchi said in his Diet policy speech earlier this week that Tokyo would bewilling to resume dialogue with North Korea if the nation respondsconstructively. | |||||||||
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