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May 16. (KCNA/Yonhap News)iijima

By Jeong Nam-ku, Tokyo correspondent

In Sep. 2002, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made a surprise visit to North Korea. He met with former North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in the first summit meeting ever held between North Korea and Japan. After the meeting, the Pyongyang Statement was released, which declared the beginning of negotiations toward diplomatic relations. Koizumi received a personal apology from Kim for the abduction of Japanese citizens, and upon his return from his second trip to North Korea in May 2004, he brought back five Japanese who had been abducted.

Eleven years later, would it be possible for current Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to once again dramatically transform relations between North Korea and Japan? Abe said that he would be willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un if that were necessary to find a solution to the abduction issue. Politicians in Japan believe that Abe is intent on holding a summit meeting. Nevertheless, Japanese generally do not have high expectations. The problem is that the gap between the North Korean and Japanese positions is too wide, and the regional situation is not on their side.

Cabinet Secretariat Advisor Isao Iijima is currently visiting North Korea, apparently as Abe’s special envoy. On May 15, Isao met with Kim Yong-il, the secretary for international affairs for the North Korean Workers’ Party, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. Iijima’s May 16 meeting with Kim Yong-nam, North Korean Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, suggests that North Korea is also positive about the Japanese overtures.

The very fact that the North is trying to solve the problem of the auction of the land and the headquarters of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryeon) and that Japan is working to find a solution for the abduction issue is progress in and of itself. But there are a lot of obstacles in the way of further progress.

There are a number of problems that Japan faces when it comes to North Korea. These include solving the problem of the abduction of Japanese citizens, along with recovering the bodily remains of Japanese citizens who died in North Korea, securing the return of the Japanese women who accompanied their Korean husbands to North Korea during the so-called repatriation project (in which Korean-Japanese were sent to North Korea), and having the Japanese who hijacked Japan Airlines Flight 351 in 1970 extradited to Japan.

For North Korea, there is no reason to hold a summit if they are not able to hold negotiations about normalizing diplomatic relations, which would lead to reparations for Japan’s colonial occupation (1910-1945).

“The psychological trauma, loss of life, and material deprivation experienced by Koreans during the Japanese colonial control of the peninsula was more terrible than anything that has happened at any other time or place,” said a column that appeared in the Rodong Sinmun, the newspaper of the North Korean Worker’s Party, on May 15. The column also said that Japan ought to have apologized and offered compensation for its national crimes.

North Korea believes that Japan ignored the fact that Kim Jong-il had personally apologized for the abduction of Japanese citizens and allowed the negotiations to break down. Before entering into full-fledged discussions about the abductions, it is likely that the North will ask Japan for some payment or surety. This would be a tough pill to swallow for Abe, who established himself politically and became Prime Minister two times while maintaining a hard line on North Korea.

With South Korea, the US, and China responding with hostility to North Korea’s nuclear weapons test and its launch of a long-range missile, the conditions in the region also make it difficult for Japan to reach a breakthrough in its relations with North Korea.

During a press briefing on May 16, Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Cho Tae-young openly criticized Iijima’s visit to North Korea, calling it “unhelpful.” Japanese conservatives are also accusing the move of jeopardizing regional cooperation on North Korea.

The Japanese government is refusing to comment on Iijima’s visit to Pyongyang. The Sankei Shimbun suggested that the government thinks that, if the visit does not yield any results, it can escape criticism by having Iijima claim that he visited the North on his own accord.

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