Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will travel to North Korea for talks with leader Kim Jong Il on the release of family members of Japanese citizens abducted by Pyongyang, the government announced yesterday, signaling a breakthrough in a stalemate that has soured Tokyo's relations with the impoverished communist state.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said Koizumi would travel next Saturday. The talks will include discussion of North Korea's nuclear weapons programs and other bilateral issues and will be aimed at moving to normalize relations between the two counties, he said.
"The aim is to restore trust between Japan and North Korea," Hosoda said.
Speculation has been high in recent weeks that Koizumi could go to Pyongyang to secure the handover of the relatives -- seven children and one husband -- of five Japanese who were kidnapped by North Korea decades ago and sent back to Japan in 2002.
Hosoda said there was no guarantee that the relatives would be released when Koizumi goes to Pyongyang.
"This is up to the result of the visit and the negotiations," Hosoda said.
The issue is highly emotional in Japan, where repatriated abductees and their supporters have criticized the government for lack of progress in talks with North Korea. Such a trip, if successful, would be an important political coup for Koizumi, whose ruling coalition faces important elections in the upper house of Parliament in July.
Koizumi last traveled to North Korea for an unprecedented summit with Kim in September 2002.
It also follows high-profile moves by Tokyo to apply pressure on Pyongyang, including a recently enacted measure allowing unilateral sanctions against North Korea, in hopes of winning concessions on the abductions.
The families of the kidnapping victims said they had high expectations for Koizumi. Toru Hasuike, whose brother, Kaoru Hasuike, was abducted in the late 1970s and returned to Japan in 2002, called the reported trip "a brave decision."
North Korea has acknowledged kidnapping at least 13 Japanese citizens to train spies in Japanese language and customs.
Pyongyang said eight of them have since died, and it allowed the five survivors to return to Japan after a landmark September 2002 summit between Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
Pyongyang, however, had so far refused to release the former abductees' family relatives, which include alleged US Army deserter Charles Robert Jenkins, who married one of the Japanese abductees and has stayed behind in North Korea with their two teenage daughters.
It was not immediately clear yesterday whether North Korea had already agreed to release the relatives as a prerequisite for Koizumi's visit, and it was not certain how many of them would be included in such a deal.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed
RSS