Japan will send officials to North Korea while Pyongyang reinvestigates the fate of Japanese nationals it abducted in the Cold War years, a senior politician said yesterday.
Dispatch of the mission is part of an accord made last week by the the two countries, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said.
Japan and North Korea have no diplomatic ties and they contact each other through their embassies in Beijing at present.
Photo: AFP/JIJI PRESS
Since North Korea in 2008 agreed to reopen investigations but failed to keep its promise, Japan has been mulling ways to ensure an effective probe by the North.
“We strongly requested what had been missing in the previous 2008 accord — such as meeting people concerned and visiting relevant places while staying there — and it has been accepted,” Suga said in a program aired on public broadcaster NHK.
Kyodo News reported on Saturday that Japan was considering stationing diplomats and police officials in North Korea. Initially the officials would stay there for short periods, but Tokyo is considering making them resident officials and establishing a permanent office, the news agency said, quoting anonymous government sources.
The Japanese government said Thursday it would ease sanctions against North Korea if the secretive state delivers on a pledge to reinvestigate the cases of Japanese nationals kidnapped in the 1970s and 1980s to train spies.
The announcement, a major breakthrough in a very strained relationship, comes after three days of talks between the two sides in Sweden, and marks the most positive engagement between Pyongyang and the outside world in many months.
North Korea admitted in 2002 to having abducted 13 Japanese. However, it said without producing credible evidence that eight of them had died, provoking an uproar in Japan.
Tokyo has insisted that they are still alive and that there should be more kidnap victims from Japan.
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
Hundreds of people in rainbow colors gathered on Saturday in South Africa’s tourist magnet Cape Town to honor the world’s first openly gay imam, who was killed last month. Muhsin Hendricks, who ran a mosque for marginalized Muslims, was shot dead last month near the southern city of Gqeberha. “I was heartbroken. I think it’s sad especially how far we’ve come, considering how progressive South Africa has been,” attendee Keisha Jensen said. Led by motorcycle riders, the mostly young crowd walked through the streets of the coastal city, some waving placards emblazoned with Hendricks’s image and reading: “#JUSTICEFORMUHSIN.” No arrest