Abe urges N Korea to jointly break mutual distrust

Ok, NK said the issue was resolved, Abe is responding, "We don't trust you", all along waving a carrot of financial aid across their faces.

Really need to get a third party involved to arbitrate between these two children!

Nothing newsworthy here. Provided NK is sincere in their position, willing to denuclearize and economically rebuild the country, NK will eventually come around to resolving the issue to get at Japan's wallet. With the US and SK telling them so, and China and Russia telling them to "take the money", it will happen. And if NK is NOT sincere, well we've all got big problems. Japan will have to accept the fact that IF NK provides satisfactory evidence of their death then they must be prepared to consider the issue resolved. This constant repeating of "return them alive" is ridiculous if it is not established if they are dead or alive. On gthe NK, I think the only way this could go south is if they are all dead and died by means that will not sit well with the Japanese populace ala Otto Warmbi

What would probably be considered "resolved" at the least would be a documented record of when and where these abductees were taken, lived, and died, including under what circumstances. Being that they were kidnapped by a NK government agency it is unlikely that there would be no documents at all, just simply classified. Anything further, such as actual remains or the remote but not totally impossible chance that they are alive, would simply be gravy.

The North Koreans have already said Megumi is dead, produced an offspring. But the Megumi parents insist that they await her return. Abe Shinzo refuses to accept this reality. The Kim Family Regime is indeed an evil one for conducting these abductions, but that won't make Megumi materialize alive.

She symbolizes this false hope that Abe declines to puncture.

On what Abe and Japan should do is a difficult question since Trump is washing his hands of this issue by indicating that he has created the opportunity for Japan to deal with North Korea directly.

But the Megumi parents insist that they await her return. 

In Japanese culture referring to awaiting a person's "return" is completely consistent with awaiting the return of the remains of a deceased person.

The DPRK previously returned remains which it said were Megumi, but genetic testing showed that they were not human remains.

All the families of the abducted are entitled to proper closure before Japan commences giving aid.

"Abe urges N Korea to jointly break mutual distrust" now why didn't he think of that before? Have any other posters noticed how many Abe-serving headlines are coming up in the JT lately.

Kim better do a better job than state the same old mantra about the issue being 'resolved' if he expects to see some Yen from Japan.

Sadly, Kim outplayed Abe by a mile, and Abe has no choice but to do what Kim wants.

It must really, really hurt Abe-kun that’s Trump likes Kim much better and sings his praises, while he threatens Abe for no reason, saying he’ll send over 25 million Mexicans and ignoring Abe’s cry to be BBFLs

Lets start with a “clean slate”. Japan and NK can be really strong partners and friendly neighbor. Please agree to meet PM Abe, Kim-san. They will find a lot in common and forge strong relationship. Both are from famous families, were rulers at a young age and have International study experience abroad.

They are both “strongman” leaders but also pragmatic and flexible. I am optimistic.

Abe said. "I have a strong sense of mission to resolve the issue under my own responsibility."

When there are numerous, much more important domestic issues to tackle, it blows my mind that Abe is so obsessed about the abduction issue. I highly doubt that the abduction issue even crosses the minds of the vast majority of Japanese citizens who are struggling to pay bills or stuck in dead-end jobs with no hope for the future. I suspect that the majority of Japanese people would not want their tax dollars spent on paying off what is essentially a ransom.

When there are numerous, much more important domestic issues to tackle, it blows my mind that Abe is so obsessed about the abduction issue. I highly doubt that the abduction issue even crosses the minds of the vast majority of Japanese citizens..

dmc27, I think you misunderstand. Trump also misunderstood when described this as a major PERSONAL (my capitalization) issue for Mr.Abe. The vast majority of Japanese see the abductees as a top priority. These people have been household names for years and are a national preoccupation.

Now that Trump has praised Kim and considers him an honourable person, I guess Abe has to follow suit. Tee hee hee.

The vast majority of Japanese see the abductees as a top priority.

Thank you for the clarification. Sadly, it then seems like nothing more than an effective political stunt by Abe.

This is from a 2006 article, "Japan Rightists Fan Fury Over North Korea Abductions":

"By championing this one cause, Mr. Abe rose from obscurity to become prime minister three months ago. But Mr. Abe, who has backpedaled on economic changes undertaken by his popular predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, has begun to plummet in the polls. To survive politically, he will probably have to keep leaning on the abduction issue.

In a move that raised concerns about the news media’s freedom, Mr. Abe recently ordered the public broadcaster, NHK, to further emphasize abductions in its international radio broadcasts. NHK agreed, even though it had already been devoting about a third of its news content to the topic in the first nine months of this year, according to NHK."

https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/17/world/asia/17japan.html

And, sadly, here we are 12 years later. with an economy that is still stalled, and NK still being the only path to re-election. Much like Trump and his wall.

Uncle Trump is a great man, he has done everything to undermine his own country's political foundation. When you saw this photo of Mr.Abe's face, he is very annoying with the Singapore summit which was a terrible betrayal of him. Trump did not take a hard stance over K.J. instead Trump praised the North Korean regime and their wrong doings.He even cut short the drills used to warn North Korea. I wonder how can he and the Japanese people sleep tight with such a result?

Abe expressed a readiness to finance denuclearisation costs in North Korea.

Very generous of him.

Hands off my money though. This finance should be voluntary. Crowd-fund it or whatever, I don’t trust the North Korean regime, and I don’t trust the LDP regime either. So not a single yen towards this from my taxes. Thanks.

Japan is not obliged to help with the denuclearisation costs here but will be forced due to NK being opportunistic. I just hope Abe will be smart enough to know NK's plan. Japan must benefit as well, say trade, oil and other raw resources from NK. Japan in return can most likely invest and offer NK some loans.