Japan Puts Pressure on N. Korea

Japan’s parliament enacted a bill today that would impose sanctions on North Korea if it fails to cooperate in clearing up details of its past abductions of Japanese citizens.

The upper house’s approval of the bill followed passage by the more powerful lower house Tuesday.

The legislation authorizes the government to ban the docking of North Korean ships at Japanese ports and stop the private transfer of much-needed cash from Japan to the reclusive communist country.

The legislation is part of Japan’s effort to pressure North Korea into resolving a series of abductions in the 1970s and ‘80s that have long fanned tensions between Tokyo and Pyongyang.

In 2002, North Korea admitted kidnapping 13 Japanese citizens. It then allowed five of them to return, saying the other eight were dead.

Japan has continued to demand proof of the deaths, and it suspects other citizens have been abducted by the North.

Tokyo has discussed possible sanctions against North Korea for several years during sporadic talks to resolve the issue, most recently in February, but no noticeable progress has been made. Pyongyang has said sanctions would be considered a “declaration of war.”

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Thursday that Japan would “strenuously negotiate” with North Korea over the North’s abductions as well as nuclear weapon and missile issues.

Japan has stepped up its pressure on Pyongyang. In April, it issued arrest warrants for two former North Korean agents suspected in the 1980 disappearance of Japanese citizen Tadaaki Hara, one of the abductees.