Japan passes North Korea sanctions bill

Pyongyang has said it would regard the imposition of sanctions as a “declaration of war.”

Many Japanese politicians from both ruling and opposition parties and activists have called for punitive steps against Pyongyang for not resolving the row over Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents in the 1970 and 1980s.

North Korea has admitted kidnapping 13 people, eight of whom it says are dead. The other five were repatriated in 2002, and Pyongyang insists the abductee issue is now settled.

But Tokyo wants more information about the eight dead, and about three others it says were also kidnapped. It also demands that Pyongyang return all surviving Japanese abductees.

The bill, jointly prepared by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, its junior coalition partner New Komeito and the main opposition Democratic Party, calls for sanctions to be imposed if North Korea does not make progress in resolving human rights violations including the Japanese abductions.

But the legislation does not specify exactly how Tokyo would measure progress on North Korea’s human rights record and when the government should slap punitive steps on Pyongyang.

“The government will take into consideration international trends comprehensively,” it says.

North Korean’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Tuesday reiterating that the issue of the abductees had been resolved.

“In trying to internationalize the abduction issue, which had been solved, by deliberately bringing it into bold relief, the Japanese authorities seek to isolate the DPRK (North Korea) by taking advantage of the U.S. hostile policy toward it,” the statement said.

Many analysts and officials say economic sanctions imposed by Japan alone would not put enough pressure on North Korea to force it to help resolve the abductee issue.

The Japanese bill, which also calls on Tokyo to extend aid to North Koreans defecting from their homeland, is likely to be enacted during the current parliamentary session ending on Sunday, after securing endorsement from the upper house.

Japan and North Korea held talks in Beijing earlier this year on normalizing diplomatic ties but made no progress. Tokyo has placed high priority on the abductee issue, making its resolution a condition for improving ties with Pyongyang.

“The abductee problem touches Japan, South Korea and North Korea. We would like to take a new start and find new ways to solve these problems,” Japanese ruling party lawmaker Ichiro Aisawa told reporters in Seoul.

Aisawa led a small group which discussed North Korean human rights and the abduction issue with South Korean lawmakers and officials, including Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon.

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