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Japan won't fund N Korea deal
15/02/2007 13:35 - (SA)
Tokyo - Japan's foreign minister on Thursday insisted the country was not isolated on North Korea, after refusing to fund a breakthrough six-nation deal on shutting Pyongyang's nuclear facilities.
Japan has vowed not to fund the Beijing agreement, under which North Korea stands to get an eventual one million tons of fuel oil, until it resolves an emotive row over the communist state's abductions of Japanese civilians.
"Japan is not isolated and its relationship with China was very close in the latest negotiations," foreign minister Taro Aso said.
"The five countries all understand that Japan won't provide energy support unless the abduction issue is resolved," he said.
Chinese foreign minister Li Zhaoxing offered to help on the abduction row, according to a Japanese official, after arriving in Tokyo on the first visit to Japan by a senior Chinese official since the Asian powers began repairing frayed ties last year.
US President George W Bush on Wednesday also urged North Korea to tackle the abduction issue.
North Korea admitted in 2002 that it had kidnapped Japanese civilians in the 1970s and 1980s to train its spies. It returned five victims and their families and said the rest were dead.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who built his career campaigning on the issue, believes more abductees are alive and demands North Korea come clean.
Taku Yamasaki, a ruling party lawmaker close to Abe's predecessor Junichiro Koizumi, who paid two landmark visits to Pyongyang, has called for Abe to compromise, saying the Beijing deal was in Japan's interest.
Nobutaka Machimura, a foreign minister under Koizumi, on Thursday rebuked Yamasaki.
"Someone within our party is making noises that would only benefit North Korea," Machimura said.
- AFP
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