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Tokyo considers harsher sanctions against N Korea

Japan said yesterday it could impose harsher sanctions against North Korea if Pyongyang failed to meet its promise in a long-running row over its abduction of Japanese nationals.

Japan had said that it would lift some of its sanctions against North Korea after Pyongyang resumed talks with Tokyo and agreed to open a new probe to search for Japanese people kidnapped by North Korean spies during the Cold War.

But Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura told the public broadcaster NHK that North Korea had to make clear progress on the issue.

“We just promised to ease sanctions, believing it’s going to be a sincere probe,” he said.

“If we found it not sincere, [sanctions] will revive and may become a harsher one.”

“If they don’t move forward at all, we will take a step backward. Our stance is tongue for tongue and action for action,” Komura said.

Japan said it would lift restrictions on the movement of people between the two countries and end a ban on chartered flights from the impoverished state.

It also said it would allow North Korean ships to dock for humanitarian purposes, although most vessels, including a ferry that was the main link between the two countries, would remain barred.

The plight of the abductees has struck an emotional chord in Japan.

North Korea admitted in 2002 to having kidnapped 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980s to train its spies in Japanese language and culture.

It returned five victims and their families, then said the case was closed.

Komura also called on the US and other countries to take concerted steps with Tokyo in an effort to make Pyongyang resolve the abduction row and abandon its nuclear ambitions.

“We cannot solve the issues without a decision by [North Korean leader] Kim Jong-il,” the foreign minister said. “Unfortunately, Japanese pressure is not good enough.”

“In reality, we will be able to make it by relying on the help of the United States, South Korea, China, Russia and other countries,” he said.

Komura will hold talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this week in Kyoto on the sidelines of the G8 foreign ministers’ meeting.

The talks between Japan and North Korea came amid signs of progress in the six-nation disarmament deal after a long standstill.

North Korea, which tested a nuclear bomb in 2006, agreed in February to give up its nuclear programs in exchange for badly-needed fuel aid and diplomatic benefits.

It failed to submit a complete list of its nuclear programs by the end of last year, with the US pressing for Pyongyang to clear up suspicions it sold arms to Syria and ran a secret plutonium program.

But Rice said on Wednesday that North Korea would soon submit its declaration of nuclear programs, indicating Washington would then take action to remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
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