Wednesday, October 02, 2002
The DPRK has offered a more detailed explanation (NYTimes, free registration required) as to the circumstances surround the deaths of eight Japanese nationals in North Korea. This apparently isn't satisfying the families of those who have died and presents Prime Minister Koizumi with a dilemma:
I suspect that the desire for better relations with the DPRK will win out in the end, unless more damaging information about how the abductees died emerges.
The controversy has presented the Japanese government with a difficult choice: whether to favor increasingly impassioned popular sentiments about the abductees, or pursue his country's rapprochement with North Korea, with which it has never had diplomatic relations.
I suspect that the desire for better relations with the DPRK will win out in the end, unless more damaging information about how the abductees died emerges.
