|
N. Korea Warns Japan May Spoil Nuke Talks
TOKYO (AP) - North Korea warned Monday that Japan could spoil upcoming six-way nuclear negotiations with its insistence on raising the issue of Japanese citizens abducted to the North years ago. Japan and North Korea officially cut diplomatic ties in October over the abductees. Last September, North Korea acknowledged its agents abducted or lured 13 Japanese nationals in the 1970s and said eight of them had died. The remaining five returned to Japan in October, but the North wonât let their families leave to join them.Not until Japan reimburses the NKors for all the grass these families ate. Attempts to bring up the abductions "may create unnecessary complications" and "throw the discussion into confusion and divert its focus" said a news analysis in the state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Monday. "And we ainât sorry, either!" The talks will be held Aug. 27-29 in China between North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, China and Russia. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said the issue of the abductions was just as important to Tokyo as the nuclear standoff. Good for them. Each citizen is important. In talks with South Korea and the United States in Washington last week, Japan won backing for its stance on the abductions. Good for us, too. Japanese reporters were told after the meeting that Japan intends to press North Korea in the negotiations to permit the families to return. The Rodong Sinmun analysis said the main purpose of the multilateral talks, to be hosted by China, is to settle the nuclear issue, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. The nuclear talks will be the first time Japan and North Korea will have meet officially since diplomatic relations broke down over the abductions. Australian Prime Minister John Howard sounded an optimistic note about the North Korean nuclear threat during a visit to China on Monday. "North Korea is the issue of the day - the issue, really, of the year - in this part of the world. We are moving in the right direction," he said. The Russian Foreign Ministry also said a top Russian diplomat met with the Japanese ambassador Monday to discuss the upcoming talks. Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov and Japanese Ambassador Issei Nomura both expressed hope that "the optimal solution, providing for the nuclear-free status of the Korean peninsula, the security of the states located there and stability in Northeast Asia, will be found," the ministry said in a statement. And let their people go! Posted by: Steve White 2003-08-18 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=17757 |