hankyoreh

staff photographer)

By Lee Hyung-sub, staff reporter

North Korea has demanded that a meeting between North Korea and Japan be brought down to a lower level than had been planned. Pyongyang asked that the participants of the meeting scheduled for August 29 be at the director level; it was originally planned to be at the director general level.

Since negotiators at this level don’t have the authority to make significant decisions, this meeting could end up being just for show. Kyodo News reported on August 24 that at the preparatory gathering, the Japanese side wanted that the official meeting take place at the director general level while Pyongyang asked that this be lowered to a director level.

The scheduled meeting is to discuss the repatriation of the remains of Japanese soldiers from North Korea. Japan had hoped that at the same time it was to provide the venue to discuss the agenda of a higher-level meeting in the future.

Some observers see this as North Korea trying to hinder Japan’s efforts in trying to discuss as an official agenda item the kidnapping of Japanese nationals. Until now, the North Koreans showed some effort in trying to work with the Japanese in repatriating the remains, allowing five Japanese officials to visit Pyongyang for the preliminary discussions. But any discussion on the kidnapping issue has been stalled from the very beginning.

The Japanese government is hoping that the meeting on the 29th will make progress toward a formal bilateral meeting by establishing an agenda and processes. However, with North Korea now lowering the level of the meeting to director level, the discussions may not move as expected. The latest bilateral talk between the two sides was a working level group meeting for the normalization of ties in Hanoi, Vietnam in March 2007. This continued until August 2008 when North Korea’s nuclear program became an issue.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]