Should the abductee issue be part of the agenda for the six-nation talks on North Korea’s nuclear program?

I understand why and how the abduction issue is a highly sensitive one to Japan, but the nuclear issue isn't about Japan-North Korean relations. It's about regional relations.

If Japan is looking to have the moral support of others to help facilitate talks about the abductions, then Japan should propose 6-party talks on the abductions. But hijacking the current nuclear talks only serves to guarantee North Korea will either leave the table straight away, or not come at all.

Agree with LFRA - the abduction issue is bi-lateral and a distraction in regional a regional forum.

That is not to say that it is irrelevant, just better left to parties concerned, or as an extra point on which Japan can grandstand, or some politician here can open his or her big mouth about for populist purposes.

Even if there is room in the framework for bilateral talks at the six-nation nuclear talks it should not be on the table. It would be the prime motivation for the Japanese government, and one of the excuses NK would blame their usual walkout routine on (if they even agree in the first place to talks). Keep the talks on abduction for a completely separate meet.

No. Get over it, just like the honorable Takako Doi once mentioned.

I don't begrudge Japan bringing up this issue. These talks are more about showing the North Koreans to be the slime of the world than anything else anyways.

No, it's a separate issue. The abductee issue absolutely needs to be talked about but within the context of limiting North Korea's nuclear program you're all but guaranteeing a NK walkout if you complicate matters. I don't really see how you can link the two in a practical way, and if you had one issue to choose-- and I'm aware this is of little comfort to the abductees' families-- you should choose the one that impacts the larger group. Settle this problem, make nice and THEN come at NK with the abductees and really hammer it once you've got a nuclear agreement in place and functioning. If the NK government does its petulant baby fit over that and starts up their program again, at least you've set it back for a number of years so something positive has been accomplished which is better than no agreement on this and no agreement on the abductees and NK propaganda spewing more of its nonsense over the whole thing.

No, unless you want to South Korea bringing in 500 abducted by North Korea and N and S Korea jointly bringing 5.4 million abducted during Japanese occupation in the discussion.

I think only Koreans are objecting it. They object everything Japan tries to do.

The talks are about NK's nuclear programs. Any discussion of abductions will only obfuscate the nuclear concerns and run the talks off the rails.

The point of the talks is to stop NK nuclear program. All else is irrelevant.

What possible relation does the abductees have to do with North Korea's nuclear weapon program? The surest way to guarantee a discussion will fail is to start adding unrelated issues to the agenda. If Japan wants to talk to North Korea about the abductees, don't drag the other four countries into the discussion by adding it to a meeting the other four countries are actually there for.

And there are still missing abducted Koreans in Japan from the war period that Japan cannot account for. They are occasionally found in mass graves in Japan, even on temple grounds. If North Korea insisted on bringing that up, boy would the tune of those say "yes" turn 180 degrees.

The North Korean people are scared mal-nourished people. It is the government that don't care. When the leader is fanatical there will not be a change.

I sometimes question how many of these relatives really want to get their abducted family members back. I mean, it's been thirty-plus years since the government started negotiating and there has been no progress except for the time former PM Koizumi went over there (NK) and brought some back. If you really want to get your relatives back, you are going to have to think out of the box (hire mercenaries, etc.) and do it yourself....that is unless, like the Yokota's, you appear to enjoy living off the sympathy of others that is funded by the government. Either way, stopping the NK nuclear program trumps getting these people back.

Nobody can see the bottom if the water is cloudy. One issue such as survival is more important than an old, illegal act.

The abductee issue more t;he fault of the Japanese gov (LDP) then North Korea. After all, they let NK into the country and established relations and did not protest their own population. If you vote for the LDP you are voting for NK, Since they have won the last too elections, you must not thing this is important and it has nothing to do with the nuclear talks. There are other countries involved and if Japan could not or would not have protect their children then there is not to blame but the gov, same for nuclear power in Japan. I think they wanted nuclear power so they could make a nuclear bomb. They have all they need to make one. They question is have they made one or not, it would take a short time to make one.

Tinawatanabe: "I think only Koreans are objecting it. They object everything Japan tries to do."

Poor Tina, the victim! Always someone else's fault, never Japan's! No wonder everyone's demanding they admit to their own wrong doings and leave the baggage out of unrelated talks! With attitudes like Tina's the talks would be derailed again before they began.