Japan, N Korea open talks on abductions

Let us hope for those elderly relatives, who have waited for so long, that they can get a good result.

As with Pamelot, I hope for the sake of the aging and possibly ailing relatives here that they get some closure, but given past examples of similar efforts I'm sorry to say I doubt we'll see any revelations. Japan will demand proof of something that NK will say does not exist, and how do you prove what's not there? NK will just dilly-dally and nothing will be achieved. But imagine if new revelations DID come to light, with NK revealing it did indeed kidnap so and so, and providing the ashes (the real ashes) of a person kidnapped -- despite it being revealed for the purpose of moving forward it would result in a huge jump back, same as what happened with the historic visit between Koizumi and Kim Jong Il. It was supposed to be a big step towards mending ties and stopping the rhetoric and what not, but instead the media ceased on the admittance of kidnappings and Koizumi had to reverse his decisions to help NK and work on peace in the region, and this basically unhinged the Sunshine Policy.

In short, nothing new will happen.

Communist North Korea needs to return ALL Citizens of foreign countries that they have abducted over the past 60 Years including the Japanese Citizens (alive or deceased), American POWs from the Korean War (alive or deceased), AND they also need to return the USS Pueblo (AGER-2) that they illegally fired upon, boarded, and seized in 1968, killing 1 Crewmember, hauled Captain and the crew into a brutal Concentration Camp and tortured them physically & mentally for 11 Months until their release without any apology nor the return of the USS Pueblo (which they now have as a "Museum" in light of their Communist Rampage).

North Korea continues to be not only China's "Lap Dog", but they also continue smuggle dangerous weapons illegally to Hostile Regimes throughout the world and they continue to act as a Hostile Regional Threat to their Asian Neighbors.

Unfortunately the view is that North Korea will not be seriously motivated to negotiate and move things forward at this time primarily in light of the upcoming election and the near zero possibility for Noda's cabinet to remain in power.

Hikozaemon: But it did, and it happened because human nature prevailed over simple politics. That subsequently failed when the latter took over.

I can't understand why NK does it? That is very unlogical.

Smith - DPRK sent a bunch of signals in 2002 that there would be more admissions if Japan reciprocated the first abductee releases with concrete steps towards normalization of diplomatic relations - and the implied promise of reparations like those Japan paid to South Korea to settle all colonialism/war claims.

DPRK played the abductees as a political card - remember releasing Soga and Jenkins, but holding their children to force them to return? And the same with the other abductees. DPRK was trying to get away with holding onto the hostages.

Japan didn't play politics - it said it required full release of all abductees and their families. DPRK released sloppily thrown together death certificates and some random cremated ashes.

Fact is, it is clearly a mistake, as it was in 2002, to presume that there are no more Japanese abductees alive in DPRK. And the welfare of hostages is not a political relations/ransom chip. DPRK should not expect to have relations with Japan while it clearly is not coming clean on abductees.

The benefit of coming clean is clear for DPRK - If Japan pays a similar package to that it paid to the South, you are talking about a measure to immediately boost the sustainability of Kim's regime, and that will materially benefit the welfare of citizens in DPRK much as Japan's payments to South Korea did aiding their post war recovery.

Given the cheapness of life in DPRK under the regime there, it seems to me the benefits of resolving this issue to Japan's satisfaction far outweigh the benefit of sticking to their lies. I hope for DPRK's own sake that this gets resolved - and indeed, that the 350,000 DPRK citizens in Japan can finally get an embassy and be allowed to directly send remittances as a result (instead of going through PRC as they do).

Peace

Nothing was supposed to happen in 2002...

2 aketownNov. 16, 2012 - 03:44AM JST

NK had never had as communist.

The dumb talking to the dumb. Hahahahahahahaha.... These meeting will not really go anywhere because both North Korea and Japan have not real seance about what needs to be done. All that these two countries care about is themselves. The north is about control and Japan is about getting their people back that was taken from Japan illegally because Japan did not have the common seance to bar North Koreans from coming to Japan.

Still today, rather than closing the North Korean schools that are Japan that teach their students about North Korea more than about Jpan, they play politics and act like they are doing something when in actuality, they are not doing much at all.