Japan PM may visit North Korea in cold war kidnap probe
Tokyo says Shinzo Abe may visit Pyongyang in connection with a re-opened investigation into Japanese citizens allegedly kidnapped by North Korea during the cold war
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe may visit North Korea, Japan said on Tuesday, days after announcing a deal to re-open an investigation into Japanese citizens kidnapped by spies during the cold war.
Any such visit would be controversial, especially in Seoul and Washington, which have led the charge to further isolate Pyongyang over its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes.
Tokyo and Pyongyang have no formal diplomatic ties, partially because of what Japan says is the North’s unwillingness to come clean over the abductions in the 1970s and 1980s.
“We must think constantly what would be the most effective response and method in order to bring results.”
But in a breakthrough last week, they said an investigation into the fate of missing Japanese would be re-opened. In exchange, Japan would ease some of the unilateral sanctions it has imposed on the isolated state.
“We must think constantly what would be the most effective response and method in order to bring results,” Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida told a parliamentary committee.
“In doing so, we will consider [Abe’s] making a visit to North Korea,” he said, according to Jiji Press news agency.