Japan’Ruling Parties to Send A Mission to Pyongyang for Possible Resumption of Diplomatic Talks

Japan’s Ruling Parties to Send A Mission to Pyongyang for Possible Resumption of Diplomatic Talks

by Kim Myong Chol

Editorial Advisor to The People’s Korea

For the first time in two years and nine months Japan’s ruling three parties agreed on Nov. 4 to send a joint delegation to Pyongyang on a four-day visit from Dec. 11-14 at the invitation of the DPRK's Asia-Pacific Peace Committee.

They are the Liberal Democratic Party, the Social Democratic Party of Japan, and the Sakigake Party. They hope to pave the way for resumption of the long-stalled talks on normalizing the Pyongyang-Tokyo relations.

These developments are welcome. However, officials of the proposed delegation made it clear that they would avoid issuing any declaration and adding that they would never agree to provide postwar reparations.

They expect that all they can do is to encourage resumption of bilateral talks between the two governments.

In September 1990 the then ruling Liberal Party and the number one opposition party the then Socialist Party of Japan issued a three-party declaration jointly with the Worker’s Party of Korea, pledging earlier normalization of the two countries’ relations, reparations for the wrongdoings perpetrated by postwar Japan and the controversial post-war compensation.

The September 1990 three-party declaration led to the first round of DPRK-Japanese negotiations on the normalization of bilateral state relations in January 1991, but no official talks have been held since the November 1992 eighth round broke down over the Japanese introduction of the alleged north Korean woman terrorist named Li Un Hye.

In March 1995 the ruling three parties reached agreement with the DPRK party on early resumption of the negotiations of state relations between the DPRK and Japan, without referring to the 1990 three-party declaration.

However, no headway was made in Pyongyang-Tokyo relations. With significant progress made in DPRK-US relations including four-way talks, the MIA excavation effort and the missile talks, Japan felt being left out, seeking for some proper pretext to resume contacts with the north Koreans, despite their allegation that a number of Japanese were kidnapped to north Korea.

A series of low-level contacts were held in Beijing between diplomats of the two countries as the Japanese Government wanted to see some of Japanese wives of north Koreans returning to their native towns on a temporary visit.

A total of 93,340 north Koreans were repatriated from Japan to north Korea in a total of 187 shuttle services between Chongjin on the East Sea coast of the DPRK and Niigata on the East Sea coast of Japan from December 1959 and July 1984. Among them were a total of 1,831 Japanese women married to north Koreans.

The north Korea-Japan preliminary talks on Aug. 22 produced an agreeme nt on resumption of normalization negotiations and temporary return to Japan of Japanese women married to north Koreans. On Oct. 8 Marshal Kim Jong Il was unanimously elected to the top party post of General Secretary.

The following day Pyongyang presented Tokyo with a list of the first batch of 15 Japanese women to make a temporary return to Japan.

The Japanese government made a cabinet decision to supply 3.4 billion yen worth of food aid to north korea.

Last month, a high-ranking Japanese Foreign Ministry official openly departed from the earlier Japanese government stand by discounting allegations by alleged north Korean defectors on the disappearance of some Japanese citizens and dismissing them as not credible.

On Oct. 11 Japanese Foreign Minister Obuchi expressed a hope that the two countries would be back on the table to discuss their normalized relations.

With the past as a yardstick, however, it is highly unlikely that Japan will go ahead of the US in improving relations with north Korea. In September 1990 the ruling Japanese party managed to sign a joint declaration with the north Korean counterpart on normalization talks, but however, those Japanese officials who played the key role in the issuance of the joint declaration and setting the stage for the north Korea-Japan talks were later disgraced in a financial scandal and forced to leave the political scene.

Eventually the DPRK-Japan talks were suspended as Japan yielded to American pressure. In relations with China, Japan allowed the United States to go first.

In the earlier period, there were discouraging developments, such as a nuclear standoff between the DPRK and the US and Kim Yong Sam’s visible hostility to Pyongyang. However, there are encouraging prospects of likely resumption of north-south contacts after installation of a new president in Seoul and ongoing improvement in ties between Pyongyang and Washington. The United States took the initiative in providing food to the disaster-stricken north Korea.

Given these prospects, Japan is ready to go to a certain length in improving ties with the DPRK, but will stop short of establishing full diplomatic relations.

In talking with the Japanese, the north Koreans will offer to postpone reaching any agreement on the issues of wartime and postwar reparations but to propose to set up a liaison or representative office in either capital.

The north Koreans will never compromise on those issues but is ready to discuss normalization of relations between the two countries.

Their stand is that it is not in the best interests of security and stability in the region that given their long historical and cultural relations the two neighboring countries should remain hostile and that normalized relations are one thing and the issues of wartime crime are another, which can be the subject of continuing consideration between the two countries after normalization of their bilateral state relations.

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