Furor Over Abductees Clouds Japan-N. Korea Ties

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is struggling to calm Japan’s mercurial relations with North Korea amid a rising clamor about the fate of Japanese civilians kidnapped by North Korean agents during the Cold War.

The Japanese mood darkened this week after the North Korean government in Pyongyang acknowledged that its explanation for the death of Megumi Yokota, kidnapped in 1977 when she was 13, was wrong. North Korea said it had found records showing Yokota was hospitalized twice in 1993, several months after the date her death certificate says she had committed suicide.

“This doesn’t mean she is alive, but the fresh information means we need to know what happened after 1993,” said Shigeru Yokota, her 71-year-old father.

He said he despaired at finding out what happened to his daughter, one of eight Japanese civilians snatched and taken to North Korea. Pyongyang insists all have died.

The Japanese said the number of disappeared was at least 10 and possibly dozens more. Stoked by sympathy for the victims’ families, Japanese are seething over what they call North Korean gamesmanship in refusing to come clean.

Some of the anger is directed at Koizumi, whom many Japanese accuse of coddling Pyongyang in pursuit of his goal of normalized diplomatic relations. Their suspicions grew this week with the sudden resignation of Kyoko Nakayama, 64, the prime minister’s top advisor on the abduction issue, whose hard-line approach seemed to bolster Koizumi’s claim to being committed to the families’ cause.

Nakayama told reporters she quit because she had “already accomplished my given role.” But many here believe she was forced out when Koizumi reorganized his government Monday, giving powerful roles to advisors known to favor better ties with North Korea. The move was made to address a growing sense among many in Koizumi’s circle that the danger from Pyongyang’s nuclear program had taken a back seat to the public uproar over the abductees.

“Of course [the abductees] issue is serious, but we can’t allow this public obsession to distract us from the real security threat, which is a nuclear North Korea,” said Keizo Takemi, a parliamentary councilor and foreign policy specialist with the governing Liberal Democratic Party.

Koizumi has made no secret of his goal to end the Cold War hangover of frosty relations with Pyongyang.

“He is determined to normalize relations with North Korea before he leaves office in 2006,” said Yasuhiko Yoshida, a specialist on Korean affairs at Osaka University. “Koizumi believes it will ensure his place in history.”

But the revelation of the faked death certificate has infuriated the Japanese public and media, which have overwhelmingly indicated they want Koizumi to settle the issue of the abductees before extending any official hug to North Korea. They are demanding that the prime minister take a tougher line by threatening Pyongyang with economic sanctions unless it meets a deadline for full disclosure.

Those emotions make it awkward for Koizumi to set the issue aside. Pyongyang’s secrecy allows the families of other long-missing Japanese citizens to contend that their loved ones must also be in North Korea, possibly even alive.

“What we really want to know is what she’s doing now,” Yokota said of his daughter.

“It is a bad situation,” Yoshida said. “The families insist there be no normalization until their sons and daughters are brought back safe and sound. But that is not possible. They are all dead.”

Rie Sasaki of The Times’ Tokyo Bureau contributed to this report.