PM Abe: Japan to lift some sanctions on North Korea

TOKYO: Japan will revoke some of its unilateral sanctions on North Korea, the prime minister announced on Thursday, rewarding progress in a probe of the Cold War kidnapping of Japanese nationals.

Shinzo Abe said Tokyo judged Pyongyang, which has pledged to re-investigate the disappearances of Japanese citizens, had shown sufficient willing in resolving the decades-old row and that this needed to be reciprocated.

“We have concluded that an unprecedented scheme that can make national decisions has been established. In accordance with the principle of action to action, we will lift part of the measures taken by Japan,” Abe told reporters.

The move comes after the two sides met in Beijing to discuss what happened to the dozens — or even hundreds — of people Japan says were snatched by North Korean spies to train their agents in language and customs during the 1970s and 1980s.

The sanctions in question are additional to international stric- tures imposed after UN Security Council resolutions following nuclear and missile tests carried out by the North.

“North Korea appears to be showing its seriousness, and the Japanese response is reasonable,” said Satoru Miyamoto, a North Korea expert at Seigakuin University in Saitama, north of Tokyo. “But this is just the beginning as no one knows about what the results will be,” Miyamoto said.

“Prime Minister Abe has taken a gamble and will have to make tough, political decisions from now on,” he said.