North Korea and Japan will hold talks next month but the issue of Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s will not be discussed, a high-ranking North Korean official has told Kyodo News Agency
In its Pyongyang datelined report, Kyodo quoted Jong Thae-hwa as saying that the kidnapping issue has been fully settled and the communist state no longer intends to provide any proof or respond to investigation requests.
Foreign Ministry officials were not available for comment Friday, a national holiday in Japan.
Earlier this week, Japan's foreign minister said the two countries will resume bilateral talks soon on Pyongyang's nuclear weapons, missile programs and the kidnapping issue, to restart negotiations stalled for nearly a year.
The last substantial talks between the two sides took place in November last year. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi held a summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in May last year in Pyongyang.
The North has admitted to abducting 13 Japanese to train its spies in Japanese language and culture. Pyongyang allowed five to return to Japan in 2002, saying the remaining eight had died.
Tokyo, however, has demanded proof of the deaths, as well as a thorough investigation into claims that other Japanese were also abducted. North Korea has indicated it considers the issue a closed case.
Family members of those abducted urged Japan to be tough in pushing for answers and called for economic sanctions against the communist country if it didn't sufficiently cooperate.
Jong, a former negotiator in talks with Japan, said the outstanding issue between the two countries was not kidnapping, but Japan's failure to fully atone for past atrocities, including forced labor and sex slaves during its harsh colonization of the Korean Peninsula, according to Kyodo. Japan colonized the Koreas from 1910 until the end of World War II.
Jong repeated Pyongyang's demand that Tokyo return what the North says are the remains of Megumi Yokota, the highest profile kidnap victim, according to Kyodo.
North Korea sent the remains to Japan in November last year after admitting to kidnapping her decades ago, but Japan said DNA tests proved it was not Yokota. Pyongyang then accused Tokyo of fabricating the results to disgrace the North and has demanded the return of the remains.
Japan and North Korea committed to press toward establishing diplomatic relations in a joint declaration during an earlier Koizumi-Kim summit in Pyongyang in 2002. Sporadic talks toward normalization have stalled, however, over the abductions issue. The two countries have never had diplomatic relations.
VAGUE: The criteria of the amnesty remain unclear, but it would cover political violence from 1999 to today, and those convicted of murder or drug trafficking would not qualify Venezuelan Acting President Delcy Rodriguez on Friday announced an amnesty bill that could lead to the release of hundreds of prisoners, including opposition leaders, journalists and human rights activists detained for political reasons. The measure had long been sought by the US-backed opposition. It is the latest concession Rodriguez has made since taking the reins of the country on Jan. 3 after the brazen seizure of then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. Rodriguez told a gathering of justices, magistrates, ministers, military brass and other government leaders that the ruling party-controlled Venezuelan National Assembly would take up the bill with urgency. Rodriguez also announced the shutdown
Civil society leaders and members of a left-wing coalition yesterday filed impeachment complaints against Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte, restarting a process sidelined by the Supreme Court last year. Both cases accuse Duterte of misusing public funds during her term as education secretary, while one revives allegations that she threatened to assassinate former ally Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The filings come on the same day that a committee in the House of Representatives was to begin hearings into impeachment complaints against Marcos, accused of corruption tied to a spiraling scandal over bogus flood control projects. Under the constitution, an impeachment by the
Exiled Tibetans began a unique global election yesterday for a government representing a homeland many have never seen, as part of a democratic exercise voters say carries great weight. From red-robed Buddhist monks in the snowy Himalayas, to political exiles in megacities across South Asia, to refugees in Australia, Europe and North America, voting takes place in 27 countries — but not China. “Elections ... show that the struggle for Tibet’s freedom and independence continues from generation to generation,” said candidate Gyaltsen Chokye, 33, who is based in the Indian hill-town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the government-in-exile, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). It
A Virginia man having an affair with the family’s Brazilian au pair on Monday was found guilty of murdering his wife and another man that prosecutors say was lured to the house as a fall guy. Brendan Banfield, a former Internal Revenue Service law enforcement officer, told police he came across Joseph Ryan attacking his wife, Christine Banfield, with a knife on the morning of Feb. 24, 2023. He shot Ryan and then Juliana Magalhaes, the au pair, shot him, too, but officials argued in court that the story was too good to be true, telling jurors that Brendan Banfield set
RSS