Appeasing Diplomacy Fails

Having been predictable enough, North Korea reported Japanese government that conclusion of investigation on Japanese abductees would be postponed. Pretending to be surprised by the message from Pyongyang, Japanese government expressed regret and started consideration of further economic sanction toward North Korea. As seen in the relation with Russia, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s diplomatic legacy is seriously undermined with his unilateral behavior in international politics.

North Korea sent a message to Japan, through diplomatic channel in Beijing, China, that it would take more time for the investigation on Japanese abductees. Abe ordered Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Abduction Issue to urge Pyongyang to submit the report soon. “It is really regrettable that abductees have not come back home even after a year of investigation. We will make designated efforts to draw actual progress from Pyongyang” told Abe in a committee in the House of Representatives. Minister of Foreign Affairs sent North Korea a message through Beijing route, which expressed regret and required early solution of abduction issue through quick investigation.

North Korea established a special committee in the government a year ago and started investigation on bones of deceased Japanese, remaining Japanese or Japanese spouses in North Korea, abductees and missing Japanese. Japan lifted a part of unilateral economic sanctions, such as restriction of traveling.

However, the North broke the promise of releasing first report in the end of last summer or early fall. Pyongyang announced that the investigation would take a year last September. As same as previous attitude on diplomacy toward Japan, North Korea tried to buy time to draw further compromise from Japan. Appeasement for abductees had already failed in September last year.

North Korea hardened its attitude on abduction issue, while Japanese government tightened financial restriction on the representative office of Korean people in Japan. The First Secretary of Korean Labor Party, Kim Jong-un, is still on his way to concrete his regime. It is apparently not good time for Kim administration to soften its diplomacy toward Japan, which is enhancing its military with revised security guideline with United States.

Families of abductees urge Abe to take harder measures to North Korea. “As we have been expecting a progress for a year, which might be the last chance in our lifetime, I regret this result so much,” told Sakie Yokota, mother of one of the abductees, Megumi Yokota. Hope for final solution, anyway, is diminishing again.