This year, the Japanese government, along with South Korea and the United States, is drawing attention as it is known to have attempted to have ‘behind the scenes contacts’ with North Korea while continuing to ‘pressure’ North Korea to stop its nuclear and missile development. It appears that they were trying to preemptively set up a negotiation window, keeping in mind the possibility of North Korea’s return to ‘dialogue’ in the future.
Accordingly, it is pointed out that our government needs to respond to North Korea’s provocations and threats based on ‘principles’, but also needs to continue to consider ways to entice North Korea into dialogue.
According to Japan’s Asahi Shimbun, North Korea and Japan had secret contact in the Southeast Asian country on at least two occasions, in March and May.
When asked to confirm the report at a regular briefing on the 29th of last month, Japanese government spokesperson Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokatsu Matsuno only said, “I will refrain from responding due to the nature of the matter,” but did not explicitly deny it.
March and May of this year were a time when bilateral relations improved following the restoration of shuttle diplomacy between Korea and Japan, and discussions on trilateral cooperation between Korea, the United States, and Japan to counter North Korea’s nuclear and missile development and provocative foreign cooperation were gaining momentum.
During this process, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed his intention to hold a North Korea-Japan summit to resolve the issue of abductees, but at the time, many in Japan evaluated his remarks as being at a ‘primary level’.
The Japanese government has considered resolving the issue of Japanese abductees to North Korea as an issue that must be resolved along with North Korea’s nuclear and missile issues since the time of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and has expressed its intention to hold a summit to discuss this issue. However, North Korea has not resolved the issue of Japanese abductees to North Korea. This is because they have refused to engage in dialogue with Japan, maintaining the position that it is “an issue that has already been resolved.”
However, with the recent Asahi report as an opportunity, it was confirmed that contact between North Korea and Japan had actually taken place in May when Prime Minister Kishida mentioned the North Korea-Japan summit, and North Korea has completely rejected any proposals for dialogue from South Korea or the U.S. government so far and is now in a relationship with Japan. Attention is drawn to the background behind the search for dialogue.
Experts in this regard said, “If Japan is not bound by the past and tries to make a new decision from the attitude of a major country that recognizes each other as it is in line with the changed international trends and times and seeks a way to improve relations, the two countries (North Korea and Japan) will not meet each other. Paying attention to North Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Park Sang-gil’s May 29 statement that “there is no reason not to do so, the position of the government of the Republic (North Korea) is that North Korea can talk with Japan on issues other than the issue of Japanese abductees.” It is presumed that it was passed on to the other party.
It has not been confirmed whether North Korea and Japan later reached an agreement to ‘discuss issues other than abductees first’, but from Japan’s perspective, it appears that they have found ‘a way to have dialogue with North Korea.’
In relation to this, Park Won-gon, a professor of North Korean studies at Ewha Womans University, predicted, “There is a possibility that North Korea will engage in dialogue with Japan or the United States at an appropriate time.” He added, “It appears that they will wait until next year’s U.S. presidential election, but they may make a move before then.” It is also important to keep in mind the situation where a dialogue situation with North Korea suddenly arises.
Professor Park said, “North Korea’s spewing out harsh words and accusations is not something that has been happening for a day or two. Rather, what is important is what we should do when we move to the ‘dialogue’ phase,” he said. “Although our government mentioned some inducements such as North Korea development in its ‘bold plan,’ the current focus of North Korea policy is on ‘pressure.’ It’s a little more tailored. “We need to make good use of both (pressure and incentives),” he said.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.