hankyoreh

TOKYO -Ahead of a meeting to be held on Sept. 5-6 in Mongolia to discuss normalization of diplomatic ties between Japan and North Korea, the Tokyo government is showing a relatively flexible stance by expressing its intention to provide humanitarian aid to the flood-stricken country.

On Aug. 28, Japan’s Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura told reporters in a press conference that he is considering sending aid to North Korea as soon as possible, putting some distance between the idea of sending aid and the issue of kidnapped Japanese people in the communist country. It would be the first aid provision by Japan to the North since 2004, when it sent 125,000 tons of rice following that year’s flooding.

Machimura’s comments can be interpreted as a move to ease Japan’s diplomatic isolation prior to the working-level talks at a time when efforts to resolve Pyongyang’s nuclear crisis are making some progress.

The foreign minister, however, made it clear that Tokyo will keep its hard-line stance on the North, saying that he thinks it strange that the kidnapping issue cannot be resolved, while it seems possible to tackle the nuclear crisis. In short, Japan will provide aid to the North for humanitarian purposes, but still keep economic sanctions on it.

The Japanese government intends to discuss the North’s demand that Tokyo provide compensation for its 1910-45 colonization of the Korean peninsula at the upcoming talks, Japan’s Nihon Geizai Shimbun reported on Aug. 29.

North Korea, meanwhile, appears to be crediting Japan for its flexibility. Regarding previously-made remarks by Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in which he said that he would discuss normalization of diplomatic ties with the North along with nuclear and kidnapping issues, a North Korean diplomatic official said that Japan was taking an “advanced” approach.

At the first working-level talks held in Vietnam in March, Japan and the North failed to iron out their differences on the kidnapping issue, as Pyongyang said it had already been resolved with nothing further needing to be discussed. The talks ended in just three hours.