Japan Parliament warns US on N.Korea

A Japanese parliamentary panel on Wednesday urged the United States to keep North Korea on a list of state sponsors of terrorism, warning that removing it would damage the bilateral alliance.

Japan is pressing for North Korea to do more about the communist regime’s kidnappings of Japanese civilians in the 1970s and 1980s to train its spies.

The US has agreed in principle to take North Korea off its blacklist in exchange for progress in nuclear disarmament.

“We are concerned that this would disappoint many Japanese people and seriously affect the Japan-US alliance,” said a resolution passed by a special panel on the abduction issue of Japan’s lower house of parliament.

The measure enjoyed support in the divided parliament from the ruling coalition and all opposition groups except the Japanese Communist Party, which argued that the resolution would set back North Korea’s denuclearisation.

Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda raised Japan’s concerns about the terrorism list when he met with President George W. Bush in Washington last month.

North Korea has pushed to be removed from the list, which would make it eligible for US economic assistance and loans from international financial institutions.

Bush and the chief US negotiator on North Korea, Christopher Hill, have said they share Japan’s concerns about the abductions but stopped short of tying the issue to the delisting.

North Korea admitted to the kidnappings in 2002 and returned five abductees and their families.

It says, to Japan’s scepticism, that other victims are dead. The issue rouses deep emotion among the Japanese public, with the abductees’ families travelling across the country and to Washington to rally support.

Japan is part of the six-nation talks that reached a disarmament-for-aid deal with North Korea in February and has refused to fund the agreement without progress on the abduction issue.

Tokyo, Wednesday, AFP