• Home
  • Metro Asian News
  • Misc Asia
  • Lifestyle
  • Business
  • Art
  • Health
  • Eat Out
  • Events
  • Podcasts
ABOUT
Advertise in GAT
Contact us
Friday, March 24, 2023
Georgia Asian Times
International Insurance of Georgia
  • Home
  • Metro Asian News
  • Misc Asia
  • Lifestyle
  • Business
  • Art
  • Health
  • Eat Out
  • Events
  • Podcasts
  • Login
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Metro Asian News
  • Misc Asia
  • Lifestyle
  • Business
  • Art
  • Health
  • Eat Out
  • Events
  • Podcasts
No Result
View All Result
Georgia Asian Times
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Metro Asian News
  • Misc Asia
  • Lifestyle
  • Business
  • Art
  • Health
  • Eat Out
  • Events
  • Podcasts
Home Business

Warm on North, chilly to South: Japan’s Korea strategy could pose risks

Georgia Asian Times by Georgia Asian Times
May 8, 2019
in Business, Headline
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Tokyo, May 8, 2019 – Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is reaching out to North Korea in the hope of arranging a summit, a strategy critics say poses risks given doubts about chances of a breakthrough, even as ties with U.S. ally South Korea deteriorate.

In an interview with Japan’s Sankei newspaper last week, Abe offered to hold unconditional talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a shift in tone if not substance from previous remarks that had predicated a summit on progress toward resolving a feud over Japanese citizens abducted by Pyongyang decades ago.

The outreach comes amid Japan’s frosty ties with South Korea due to intensifying rows over their wartime history, including Japan’s 1910-45 colonization of the Korean peninsula.

“Abe seems to be keener to talk to Kim than to (South Korean President) Moon (Jae-in),” said one former Japanese diplomat who declined to be identified because the matter is sensitive.

AD: High Museum of Atlanta

“He should be doing the opposite: reach out to Moon … and ignore Kim for the sake of rebuilding trilateral unity vis-a-vis North Korea.”

A Japanese foreign ministry official said Tokyo, Seoul and Washington were united on the ultimate goal of getting North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program, which it carried out for years in defiance of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Abe is the only regional leader who has not met Kim, after summits between Kim and Trump, Moon, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and likely wants to show his domestic audience that he is not out of the diplomatic loop.

In a sign of the importance Japan places on the abduction issue, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga will speak in New York on Friday at a symposium on abductions, after meeting top U.S. officials in Washington.

Foreign ministry officials said there were no plans for Suga to meet North Korean officials while in the United States.

In 2002, North Korea admitted its agents had kidnapped 13 Japanese decades before. Japan says 17 of its citizens were abducted, five of whom were repatriated. North Korea has said eight are dead and that another four never entered the country.

Abe has vowed not to rest until all the abductees come home, so whether or not he publicly sets “preconditions”, the success of any summit would almost certainly be judged at home by whether there was progress on the topic.

Without progress, “the meeting would be categorized as a failure and the cost of failure would be very big”, another former diplomat said.

Defining “success” is also touchy since anything short of the return of all the missing risks a negative reaction at home.

“At this stage, the government of Japan believes that 12 are missing and still alive and that is the precondition for negotiating with North Korea. If two or three are found alive and North Korea decides to hand them back, is that a solution for the government of Japan?” the first ex-diplomat said.

“Of course, if Megumi-san is included, it would be a big victory for us,” he added. He was referring to Megumi Yokota, who was abducted by North Korea in 1977 at the age of 13 and who has become a sort of poster child for the abductees’ cause. – Reuters

Previous Post

China trade team still plans on U.S. talks as Trump vows to raise tariffs

Next Post

Google debuts privacy controls, principles at I/O event

Georgia Asian Times

Georgia Asian Times

Related Posts

Powell: Fed to keep rates higher for longer to cut inflation
Business

Fed raises key rate by quarter-point despite bank turmoil

March 22, 2023
Google hopes ‘Bard’ will outsmart ChatGPT, Microsoft in AI
Business

Google’s artificially intelligent ‘Bard’ set for next stage

March 22, 2023
Business

Amazon cuts 9,000 more jobs, bringing 2023 total to 27,000

March 20, 2023
Biden insists banking system is safe after 2 bank collapses
Business

Silicon Valley Bank’s demise disrupts the disruptors in tech

March 15, 2023
Honda changing course, will build its own electric vehicles
Business

Honda recalling 500,000 vehicles to fix seat belt problem

March 15, 2023
Biden insists banking system is safe after 2 bank collapses
Business

Biden insists banking system is safe after 2 bank collapses

March 13, 2023
Next Post

Google debuts privacy controls, principles at I/O event

Signup Free E-Newsletter

Upcoming Events

Apr 7
8:00 am - 3:30 pm

Symposium on Asia-USA Partnership Opportunities (SAUPO) 2023

May 6
9:00 am - 4:00 pm

GAT AAPI Summit 2023

Jul 14
6:00 pm - 10:30 pm

GAT 25 Most Influential Asian Americans in Georgia 2023

View Calendar
Logo

 

CONTACT US

Follow Us

MOST INFLUENTIAL

GAT 25 Most Influential Asian Americans Gala celebrates Asian voice

GAT 25 Most Influential Asian Americans Gala celebrates Asian voice

July 18, 2022

Video highlights of GAT 25 Most Influential Asian Americans in Georgia

July 17, 2022

2022 GAT 25 Most Influential Asian Americans in Georgia-Awards Gala

July 17, 2022

LINKS OF INTEREST

ATL Asian Film Festival

     

  • Contact Us
  • Advertise in GAT
  • About
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use

© 2023 Georgia Asian Times - Empowered by 8SOL. Managed by Arckopolis.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Metro Asian News
  • Misc Asia
  • Lifestyle
  • Business
  • Art
  • Health
  • Eat Out
  • Events
  • Podcasts

© 2023 Georgia Asian Times - Empowered by 8SOL. Managed by Arckopolis.

Welcome Back!

Sign In with Google
OR

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist

Subscribe

Stop scrolling through endless social media feeds for news. Sign up for our website FREE Newsletter and get news that matters to you. We filter out fluff, so you don’t have to.

    Loading
    Loading
    Loading
    Loading
    Loading
    Register for FREE to read the rest of this article, or log in to your account.

      Or Login Here :

      Login

      Are you sure want to unlock this post?
      Unlock left : 0
      Are you sure want to cancel subscription?