Twenty Years of No Progress in Abduction Issue

It has been twenty years, since the Prime Minister of Japan last visited Pyongyang, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. In spite of continuous efforts of the Japanese government to return the abductees in North Korea, no progress has been made in these two decades. Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, shows his willingness to meet the supreme leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-un, with no strategic hope for success.

Former Prime Minister, Jun-ichiro Koizumi, visited Pyongyang twice, in September 2002 and May 2004. In the first visit, North Korea admitted abduction of Japanese citizens. When five abductees visited Japan in October 2002, Japan rejected to return them to North Korea. That was how those abductees returned to home. Although North Korea promised further investigation on the rest of abductees in the second visit, no result has been reported to Japan.

 

Since the second visit of Koizumi, no remarkable progress was made in the negotiation over the abduction issue. Known as a hard-liner in the issue, former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe could not establish a constructive relationship with North Korea. Abe insisted on putting pressure on Pyongyang, including economic sanctions, making a contrast from the US President Donald Trump who made a meeting with Kim Jong-un. The other prime ministers in these twenty years did not have a greater interest in the issue than Koizumi or Abe had.

 

Kishida administration has covertly been seeking an opportunity to have dialogue with North Korea. At the twentieth anniversary of Koizumi’s first visit to Pyongyang, Kishida announced his intention to meet with Kim with no condition. Although clandestine contacts at officials level were accumulated, North Korea has not accept Kishida’s offer for a summit meeting, opposing Japan’s insistence on abduction issue.

 

During these twenty years, a framework for denuclearization of North Korea with US, China, Russia and Republic of Korea, commonly called the six party talk, has been interrupted, as rivalry between US and China or Russia emerged. North Korea kept on intimidating Japan with launching ballistic missiles toward the Japan Sea or the Pacific Ocean.

 

Chief Cabinet Secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, apologized to the families of the abductees about no progress on the issue. “It is deeply regrettable and I apologize that no abductee has returned since five abductees came back home in 2002 and their family in 2004,” said Hayashi.

 

Koizumi visited Pyongyang in 2002, in spite of warning from Washington that North Korea was developing highly enriched uranium. Kishida does not seem to be determined to solve the abduction issue against all odds.

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