Japan Institute for National Fundamentals

　　　　　There was a Japanese diplomatic fiasco we should remember over North Korea's “reinvestigation” into Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean agents. After talks with North Korean officials in Beijing on June 13, 2008, when Japan was under the Yasuo Fukuda administration, Akitaka Saiki, then director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau (vice foreign minister at present), told families of abductees and others that the government had lifted some sanctions against North Korea -- bans on (1) bilateral human traffic, (2) bilateral chartered flights and (3) North Korean ships' access to Japanese ports for transporting “humanitarian aid goods” -- in exchange for North Korea's promise to reinvestigate abduction issues. This was a too unbalanced "action for oral promise" deal.
　　　　　The Japan-North Korea deal brought about another benefit for North Korea. On Jun 26 in the same year, the then U.S. Bush administration announced that it would start procedures to remove North Korea from the U.S. list of nations sponsoring terrorism. The "improvement" in Japan-North Korea relations must have encouraged the U.S. administration's pro-appeasement group including then Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and then Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill. North Korea used Japan as a tool for international information warfare.
　　　　　Interestingly, North Korea accepted the reintroduction of a ban on North Korean ships' access to Japanese ports in a revised agreement on August 12, 2008, when the Japanese government requested renegotiations in response to domestic criticism against the June agreement. Although the Foreign Ministry had described the June agreement as a difficult deal, it actually represented Japan's excessive concessions. How should we assess the present Japan-North Korea talks based on the precedent?

Don't make unnecessary concessions
　　　　　It just so happens that the United Nations started deliberations on a resolution to refer North Korea's human rights abuse to the International Criminal Court and identify a top leader responsible for such abuse, as explained at the U.N. General Assembly by Marzuki Darusman, U.N. special rapporteur on North Korea on October 28, the day after a Japanese government delegation arrived in Pyongyang for the latest bilateral meeting on the abduction issue. At the entrance of the venue for the talks, the Special Investigation Committee was specified in English on the nameplate. Apparently, North Korea must have attempted to take advantage of the meeting with the Japanese delegation to demonstrate to the world that Pyongyang is seriously tackling a human rights issue even with Japan toward which North Korea has historically harbored resentment.
　　　　　I was surprised to see Japanese delegation chief Junichi Ihara (director general of the Foreign Ministry’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau), telling So Tae Ha, North Korean vice minister of state security and chairman of the committee, at the outset of the meeting, "I'm pleased to meet you." (As the person who identified himself as So Tae Ha wore an epaulet with only one star that is unconceivable for the vice minister of the State Security Department, he may be a dummy.)
　　　　　The State Security Department is an oppression agency amounting to the Nazi SS (Schutzstaffel) or Gestapo (secret national police), undertaking physical torture and execution routinely. Many Japanese in North Korea might have been targets of such operations. An exchange of friendly greetings between a senior official of the North Korean department and a Japanese government delegate may amount to Japan's recognition of the North Korean regime including the darkest part, contradicting the value-based diplomacy advocated by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Restore "action for action" approach
　　　　　On the dispatch of the government delegation to Pyongyang, some Japanese “experts” asserted that unless Japan sent a delegation, bilateral negotiations would be severed. As Pyongyang known as favoring secret deals recommended Japan to send the delegation, the Japanese should have suspected some North Korean conspiracy. Instead of the Japanese Foreign Ministry's concession-oriented negotiations exploited by Pyongyang for international propaganda, Japan should adopt the right approach of "action for action" taking advantage of the reintroduction of the lifted sanctions and the introduction of additional sanctions (including a ban on remittance, ban on third country ships’ access to Japanese ports after calling at North Korean ports, an expansion in the range of people subject to a ban on reentry into Japan in connection with the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, known as Chongryon, and the enhancement of law enforcement).

Yoichi Shimada is Planning Committee Member, Japan Institute for National Fundamentals, and Professor at Fukui Prefectural University.