(My latest in Asia Times)North Korea targets reset in Japan relations

North Korea targets Japan relations

North Korean efforts to warm relations with Japan suggest Kim Jong-eun is well-versed in his father's tactic of exploiting diplomatic divides among adversaries, with Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba now threatening to seek international intervention over an islet dispute with South Korea. Pyongyang's ultimate prize remains bilateral talks with the United States, so young Kim could equally be laying the ground for a diplomatic breakthrough should voters hand power to new leaders in Seoul and Washington later this year. - Kosuke Takahashi (Aug 15, '12)

North Korea targets reset in Japan relations
By Kosuke Takahashi

TOKYO - North Korea has found a good fishing spot in the troubled waters of Japan-South Korea relations.

The Japanese government on Tuesday announced it had agreed to hold bilateral talks with North Korea in China on August 29 over the repatriation of Japanese remains from the North. If they go ahead as planned, these would be the first government-level negotiations between the countries in four years.

By approaching Tokyo, the North appears to be relying on its favored tactic of exploiting diplomatic divides among its adversaries. Relations between Japan and South Korea have plummeted in recent days over a territorial dispute.

The announcement of Japan-North Korea talks comes just four days after South Korean President Lee Myung-bak made a controversial visit to disputed islets called Dokdo by South Koreans and Takeshima by the Japanese in the Sea of Japan (known in Korea as the East Sea). (See Lee puts Japan-Korea relations on the rocks, Asia Times Online, Aug 10, '12)

Lee also urged Japan to redress the issue of so-called "comfort women," mostly Korean, who were forced to become sex slaves during Japan's Asia-Pacific War (1930-1945) in an annual speech on Wednesday to mark Korea's liberation day from Japan.

A day earlier, Lee had said that Japan's Emperor Akihito should offer his heartfelt apologies to Koreans who died and underwent suffering under Japanese colonial rule if the emperor wants to pay a visit to Seoul, further enflaming nationalistic sentiments.

Japanese Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba on Wednesday said Tokyo has protested against South Korean President Lee's remarks on the Japanese emperor.

"Japan has never taken up the emperor's visit to South Korea," Gemba told reporters."In such a situation, it's hard to understand the president's remarks. It's extremely regrettable."

In response to Lee's island visit, Gemba has also said that Japan will consider taking the matter to the International Court of Justice.
"We would like to take the step in the not-too-distant future. Until now, the Japanese government has considered what impact such action may have on Japan-South Korea ties," Gemba said.

Although the Japanese government has notified South Korea of Tokyo's upcoming talks with North Korea, Seoul must have mixed feelings about the proposed negotiations between Pyongyang and Tokyo.

The diplomatic opening between Japan and North Korea follows a meeting between the Japanese and the North Korean Red Cross societies in Beijing on August 9-10 - their first in 10 years. Officials from the charities discussed the return of Japanese remains and possible visits by relatives to the graves of loved ones in North Korea.

Tokyo likely wants to break a long-running impasse over the issue of alleged abductions of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s by North Korean agents, amid public criticism that its efforts to resolve the issue have been insufficient.

"Not only the issue of remains but also the abduction issue should be included in the agenda of the talks," Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said at a press conference on Tuesday.

The government-level talks will be the first since the ruling Democratic Party of Japan came to power in 2009 and the first for new North Korean leader Kim Jong-eun, who succeeded his father Kim Jong-il after his death in December 2011.

"For Pyongyang, the US is the hardest nation to convince to start negotiations, as the current US administration has adopted its so-called policy of strategic patience," a US policy that stresses Pyongyang has to make the first move by making concessions over the regime's nuclear and missile programs, Masao Okonogi, emeritus professor at Keio University in Tokyo and a noted expert on the affairs of the Korean Peninsula, told Asia Times Online on Wednesday.

"To goad the US towards negotiations, Pyongyang has to deal with South Korea beforehand. To goad South Korea to negotiations, it has to deal with Japan. Pyongyang currently cannot deal with the US and Seoul, which faces presidential elections and possible changes of government," he said.

About 34,600 Japanese soldiers, colonists and their families are believed to have died of hunger and disease in the aftermath of the Second World War in what is now North Korea. Many were escaping from the former Manchuria, a puppet state founded by the Japanese in 1932 in Northeast China, as the Soviet Army invaded there in 1945. The remains of 13,000 people have been repatriated to Japan but more than 20,000 remains are still buried in about 70 graves in North Korea, according to the Japanese government.

Kosuke Takahashi is a Tokyo-based Japanese journalist. His twitter is @TakahashiKosuke

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