Japan Protests N. Korean Lie About Abductee

Reviewed by Hitoshi URABE

Article:
Japan Protests N. Korean Lie About Abductee
MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6679111/

Comments:

The article reports that the results of the tests conducted in Japan revealed that human remains which North Korea claimed to belong to a Japanese citizen abducted decades ago by their agents are actually those of someone else.

North Korea has done it again. And as its lies have been revealed so many times, it did not surprise the Japanese people. The regime controlling the Northern part of the Korean Peninsula, the region referred to as North Korea, has again lied to the senior representatives of the Japanese people, while looking right into the eyes of the Japanese government officials. It was perhaps of another indication that North Korea is a region governed on the belief and conviction that the term "truth" is applied to what is expressed by the regime, irrespective of what the facts are. Indeed, such a description has been provided by many who escaped from North Korea by risking their and their families' lives, but it took a while for the naive and always serious Japanese people to fully comprehend that a region governed by such horrid notion could indeed exist on the surface of earth, and in fact so close to home.

North Korea was once touted as "the earthly paradise" by a large number of Japanese politicians and Japanese scholars and Japanese media - the enlightened ones, and they lectured the Japanese people to believe that the society of North Korea was the model of what Japan should work hard in attempting to achieve. Major newspapers, publishers, and the largest opposition party at the time all praised North Korea, and even recommended those who could not wait for such a wonderful society to be realized in Japan to immigrate to North Korea, where the land was said to be filled with happy people blessed with love of the merciful founding father of the land. Tens of thousands of people actually left the then poor Japan to seek a paradise, all of them only to lose contact with their relatives and friends in Japan and eventually vanishing into the oblivion.

Perhaps out of fear for Japan to ignore them, North Korea has, like a spoiled child attempting to draw the guardian's attention, have committed a number of mischievous acts. The two of such attempts successfully attracted attention are the nuclear arms development along with the missiles to carry them, and the admission of abducting Japanese citizens in the past.

It can be envisaged that North Korea feels it is playing skillfully and effectively on the issue of the nuclear bomb development, to have other five member countries in the six party talks running around trying to seek North Korea's intentions. But the abduction issue has clearly backfired. If North Korea had thought it could play games with Japan during which achieving their wants in terms of food, money, and recognition, they have been proven to be wrong. It may be a part of North Korea's ordinary tactics to flirt with the lives and minds of the people, but in Japan, and in any civilized society, such behavior is severely despised and detested.

It is not that Japanese people have lost interest in the abduction issue. It is more of a sort where the Japanese people have become so disgusted with North Korea, that they lost interest in listening to the words of the bogus regime anymore, feeling the things have come far enough.

This time around, even those newspapers considered to have been most sympathetic to North Korea have begun referring to the possibilities of economic sanctions. A significant number of lawmakers, not only of the ruling LDP but also of the major opposition DPJ, have demanded sanctioning the North Korean regime.

It seems now that Prime Minister Koizumi is about the only prominent politician reluctant to sanction North Korea, who has reiterated the phrase used so many times, saying, "We will use both pressure and dialogue." Some people see certain irony here that until only recently, Mr Koizumi was accused by "liberal" people to be the militarist who purport hawkish policies, and now, he is functioning as the latch in preventing Japan from sanctioning North Korea.

Whatever the most effective strategy may be to resolve the issue, the behaviors of North Korea have had the effect of converging and forging the minds of the majority of ordinary Japanese people in determination to shed light on the fate of their colleagues who have had to suffer for decades by the criminal acts of that rogue regime in northern part of the Korean peninsula.