Koizumi Meets Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang; Normalization Talks to be Resumed.

(From Journal of Japanese Trade & Industry (JJTI))

Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi Jun-ichiro paid a one-day landmark visit to Pyongyang on Sept. 17 to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, seeking a breakthrough via top-level political initiatives in the deadlocked negotiations to normalize diplomatic relations between the two countries. Koizumi became the first Japanese prime minister to visit North Korea. This was also the first summit meeting by top leaders of the two countries since North Korea was created in 1945.

The two leaders signed a joint declaration, called the Japan-North Korea Pyongyang Declaration, which incorporated the two leaders' agreement to resume in October the normalization talks suspended since October 2000, comply with international law and not commit acts threatening the security of the other side, and maintain and strengthen the peace and stability of Northeast Asia.

However, the result of the historic meeting was marred by Kim's sensational revelation that six of the 11 Japanese nationals listed by the Japanese government as having been abducted to North Korea have died, one is missing and only four are surviving. It also transpired that three other Japanese, not on the Japanese government's list, had been abducted and two of them have died.

Kim for the first time acknowledged the abductions and offered an apology for the "horrible acts." He explained that some North Korean undercover agents resorted to rash acts and heroism during the 1970s and the early 1980s to recruit people who could teach the Japanese language to members of espionage organizations and help to disguise North Korean agents as Japanese to enter South Korea. He denied his personal involvement in the case.

Koizumi strongly protested to Kim about the abductions and asked the North Korean authorities to conduct detailed investigations into the cases and take measures to prevent a recurrence of such incidents. The North Korean leader pledged to punish those responsible for the abductions and to prevent a recurrence.

Among those whose death was confirmed are Yokota Megumi, who was abducted from Niigata Prefecture in 1977 when she was 13 and Arimoto Keiko, a college student of Kobe City University of Foreign Studies who was abducted in Europe in 1983 when she was 23. North Korean officials revealed ...