Leading Japan PM candidate under fire over N. Korea

JAPAN: Yasuo Fukuda, the front-runner to be Japan's next prime minister, said Friday he would keep up the pressure on North Korea if elected this weekend.

Fukuda is seen as comfortably ahead for Sunday's party vote to succeed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who built his career campaigning against North Korea but resigned last week after a slew of domestic scandals.

North Korea is enemy number one for many Japanese conservatives, particularly due to its abductions of Japanese civilians in the 1970s and 1980s to train its spies.

Taro Aso, a hawkish former foreign minister who is challenging Fukuda, questioned him about his past statements on North Korea in a debate.

"Do you acknowledge a need to put pressure on North Korea?" Aso asked.

"We need both dialogue and pressure in any kind of negotiations," Fukuda replied.

"Some kidnapped people would not have returned home had there only been dialogue."

"Dialogue and pressure" was a catchphrase of Abe's predecessor Junichiro Koizumi, who flew twice to Pyongyang to talk to leader Kim Jong-Il.

At their landmark first summit in 2002, Kim admitted to the kidnappings and later returned five abductees and their families. But Japan says more are alive and kept under wraps.

"Unfortunately, there has since been no progress. I want to solve the issue myself," Fukuda said of the abduction row.

Tokyo, Friday, AFP