Japan will discuss the fate of Japanese citizens abducted to North Korea at nuclear disarmament talks this week but should not endanger the weapons negotiations by pushing the abduction issue too far, a Japanese official said Sunday.
"I think Japan will bring up this issue," Taku Yamasaki, former vice president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said on TV Asahi's < The fate of several Japanese kidnapped to North Korea decades ago has been a sticking point as the countries prepare for six-nation talks in Beijing aimed at eliminating North Korea's nuclear weapons program. Pyongyang -- brought to the negotiating table through months of delicate diplomacy -- has objected to discussing anything outside the nuclear agenda and says the abduction issue has already been resolved. North Korea, which kidnapped the Japanese decades ago to use as language teachers for spies, said Wednesday it would not deal with Japan at all during the next round and blamed Tokyo for "trying to change the direction and atmosphere of the six-party talks." Yu Kameoka, a spokesman for Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said afterward that Japan still intends to pursue the issue and "hear what North Korea thinks." Ahead of the nuclear talks, which resume tomorrow after a 13-month hiatus, Tokyo reportedly dispatched a diplomat to revive negotiations over the kidnappings. China has offered to provide a venue for bilateral talks between Japan and North Korea during the six-nation nuclear talks, Kyodo News agency reported. North Korea has admitted kidnapping 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 80s. It allowed five of them to return to Japan, saying the other eight died. Japan is demanding proof of the deaths, as well as information on other cases of missing Japanese.
IDENTITY: A sex extortion scandal involving Thai monks has deeply shaken public trust in the clergy, with 11 monks implicated in financial misconduct Reverence for the saffron-robed Buddhist monkhood is deeply woven into Thai society, but a sex extortion scandal has besmirched the clergy and left the devout questioning their faith. Thai police this week arrested a woman accused of bedding at least 11 monks in breach of their vows of celibacy, before blackmailing them with thousands of secretly taken photos of their trysts. The monks are said to have paid nearly US$12 million, funneled out of their monasteries, funded by donations from laypeople hoping to increase their merit and prospects for reincarnation. The scandal provoked outrage over hypocrisy in the monkhood, concern that their status
The United States Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday it plans to adopt rules to bar companies from connecting undersea submarine communication cables to the US that include Chinese technology or equipment. “We have seen submarine cable infrastructure threatened in recent years by foreign adversaries, like China,” FCC Chair Brendan Carr said in a statement. “We are therefore taking action here to guard our submarine cables against foreign adversary ownership, and access as well as cyber and physical threats.” The United States has for years expressed concerns about China’s role in handling network traffic and the potential for espionage. The U.S. has
A disillusioned Japanese electorate feeling the economic pinch goes to the polls today, as a right-wing party promoting a “Japanese first” agenda gains popularity, with fears over foreigners becoming a major election issue. Birthed on YouTube during the COVID-19 pandemic, spreading conspiracy theories about vaccinations and a cabal of global elites, the Sanseito Party has widened its appeal ahead of today’s upper house vote — railing against immigration and dragging rhetoric that was once confined to Japan’s political fringes into the mainstream. Polls show the party might only secure 10 to 15 of the 125 seats up for grabs, but it is
The US Department of Education on Tuesday said it opened a foreign funding investigation into the University of Michigan (UM) while alleging it found “inaccurate and incomplete disclosures” in a review of the university’s foreign reports, after two Chinese scientists linked to the school were separately charged with smuggling biological materials into the US. As part of the investigation, the department asked the university to share, within 30 days, tax records related to foreign funding, a list of foreign gifts, grants and contracts with any foreign source, and other documents, the department said in a statement and in a letter to
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