Japan and South Korea both announced Wednesday that they would impose unilateral sanctions on North Korea, demonstrating a cooperative stance on the issue to their own nations and those overseas.
In cooperation with the United States, which is also considering unilateral sanctions, Japan and South Korea aim to accelerate discussions at the U.N. Security Council on a new resolution calling for sanctions on North Korea. At the same time, the Japanese government plans to maintain dialogue with North Korea over the abduction of Japanese nationals and is keeping a close watch on that country’s stance.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had a meeting at noon Wednesday at the Prime Minister’s Office with officials including Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and Katsunobu Kato, state minister in charge of the abduction issue, to make final arrangements for the sanctions.
Abe reportedly chose harsh sanctions from among several options presented by administrative officials.
“In addition to the threat of nuclear weapons, North Korea’s missile flew over Japan. This certainly raised the crisis level,” a senior government official said. “The prime minister apparently felt he had no choice but to adopt an ever harsher attitude toward North Korea.”
At an extraordinary press conference held Wednesday evening after the government decided to strengthen sanctions, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said: “We are closely cooperating with the United States and South Korea. I hope Japan’s unilateral sanctions will lead the international community to promptly execute strict measures based on a U.N. Security Council resolution.”
The international community has failed to take strict measures against North Korea, which pushed ahead with a nuclear test and launched a long-distance ballistic missile.
Following Pyongyang’s nuclear test on Jan. 6, the Japanese government planned to announce unilateral sanctions against the country after the U.N. Security Council’s adoption of a new sanctions resolution. According to a government source, that was expected to be “most effective for obtaining cooperation from China, which is said to account for more than 60 percent of North Korea’s total trade.”
However, China did not change its cautious attitude toward a strict U.N. Security Council resolution, despite the Japanese government’s expectations. As a result, there were increasing calls within the Liberal Democratic Party for considering unilateral sanctions.
Even so, the implementation of unilateral sanctions against North Korea by Japan could provoke that country into using them as a pretext to break its promise to reinvestigate the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korea.
In May 2014, North Korea agreed during talks between Japan and North Korea held in Stockholm to reinvestigate. The Japanese government partially lifted sanctions against North Korea afterward.
However, North Korea has still not presented any official results of the reinvestigation even 1½ years after the agreement.
With this in mind, Abe worked to deepen public understanding regarding the strengthening of sanctions. On Monday, Abe had Kato meet with members of the Association of the Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea and the government obtained the group’s agreement on the policy.
On Tuesday, both the House of Representatives and the House of Councillors adopted resolutions calling on the government to impose unilateral sanctions on North Korea, upon which Abe acted.
It is unclear, however, whether North Korea will soften its attitude. The content of the United States’ unilateral sanctions and whether an international coalition is formed based on a U.N. Security Council resolution will be focal points in the future.
Abe explained the strengthening of Japan’s unilateral sanctions against North Korea in a telephone conference with U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday, reportedly saying, “We’ll take a risk with the abduction issue, but we’ll do this [enforce sanctions], Barack.”Speech(Takeshi Yonekawa / Yomiuri Shimbun)
Link: http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0002742735
20
