Former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe, who built his career campaigning against North Korea, said on Friday the US should talk directly to Pyongyang if it helps solve the current crisis.
North Korea this week stormed out of six-nation disarmament talks and vowed to restart its nuclear program to protest a UN statement condemning it for test-firing a rocket over Japan.
The communist state has long sought bilateral talks with the US, which has held direct talks with Pyongyang but insisted that any deals come through the six-way talks launched in 2003.
The talks bring onboard Japan and South Korea — close US allies — along with China and Russia, seen as having some influence over the North.
“Japan is not opposed to the idea of direct talks between the United States and North Korea,” Abe told the Brookings Institution think tank on a visit to Washington, where he met US Vice President Joe Biden.
The conservative former prime minister said Japan’s priority was to end North Korea’s nuclear program and to resolve a row over Japanese citizens kidnapped by Pyongyang in the 1970s and 1980s to train the regime’s spies.
“If there is anything that can contribute to the resolution of these issues, then we would be in favor of talks between North Korea and the United States,” Abe said.
But he warned that “the North Koreans like to play games.”
“The North Koreans may promise to talk to the United States and then later say, ‘Well, we’re not going to,’ and thereby try to get some reward,” Abe said.
Abe, who served as prime minister from 2006 to 2007 and remains a lawmaker, rose to political prominence as an advocate for abductees’ families.
North Korea returned five kidnap victims in 2002 and says the rest are dead; Japan believes at least 12 more are alive.
Abe said North Korean leader Kim Jong-il must repatriate all abductees.
“To Kim Jong-il, I say this — Japan will simply never give in. Don’t play games with us as there is no room for compromise,” Abe said.
BACKLASH: The National Party quit its decades-long partnership with the Liberal Party after their election loss to center-left Labor, which won a historic third term Australia’s National Party has split from its conservative coalition partner of more than 60 years, the Liberal Party, citing policy differences over renewable energy and after a resounding loss at a national election this month. “Its time to have a break,” Nationals leader David Littleproud told reporters yesterday. The split shows the pressure on Australia’s conservative parties after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor party won a historic second term in the May 3 election, powered by a voter backlash against US President Donald Trump’s policies. Under the long-standing partnership in state and federal politics, the Liberal and National coalition had shared power
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
CONTROVERSY: During the performance of Israel’s entrant Yuval Raphael’s song ‘New Day Will Rise,’ loud whistles were heard and two people tried to get on stage Austria’s JJ yesterday won the Eurovision Song Contest, with his operatic song Wasted Love triumphing at the world’s biggest live music television event. After votes from national juries around Europe and viewers from across the continent and beyond, JJ gave Austria its first victory since bearded drag performer Conchita Wurst’s 2014 triumph. After the nail-biting drama as the votes were revealed running into yesterday morning, Austria finished with 436 points, ahead of Israel — whose participation drew protests — on 357 and Estonia on 356. “Thank you to you, Europe, for making my dreams come true,” 24-year-old countertenor JJ, whose
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
RSS