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TOKYO -- U.S. diplomat William Perry has a policy of "cautious
realism" regarding North Korea and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung is
identified with his positive "sunshine policy" vis-a-vis Pyongyang. It
would be generous and accurate to characterize Japan's policy toward the
regime of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Korean Workers'
Party Kim Jong-il as "darkness at noon."
While North Korea's Ri Myun-hoon, the tallest baskeball player (235
cm.) ever seen, was taking part in friendly "reunification matches in Seoul
last weekend, U.S. diplomats were looking for ways to invite North
Korean counterparts to Washington D.C.
At about the same time, Japanese Foreign Minister Yohei Kono was
saying that proceeding with food aid to North Korea, where at least
220,000 have starved since the mid-1990s, was premature.
The Japanese government thus put on hold an agreement between the Red
Cross Societies of the two nations had signed five days earlier. U.S.
estimates, by the way, put the North's death toll at two million in the
same period.
"It is necessary for us to comprehensively analyze North Korean reaction
to the humanitarian issues Japan has presented, including the abduction of
Japanese," Kono told a news conference after a cabinet meeting.
Another meeting between the two governments on setting a framework for
normalization talks was held at the same time as the Red Cross meetings.
Japanese delegates at the Red Cross meeting agreed to urge the
government to resume food aid to North Korea "as quickly as possible from
a humanitarian viewpoint."
The North Korean side promised to request a "full-scale search" for
missing Japanese who Tokyo believes were abducted by Pyongyang. In Japan's
"food diplomacy policy" handbook, the issue pivots on whether the
Japanese in question were "abducted" or "missing."
A point of all this is "Why has Japan been so persistently tough over
the last 50 years toward North Korea? Why does this abrasive treatment
single out North Korea among all the nations of the world?"
Some say the answer s are wrapped up in resentments or emotional
fallout from Tokyo's colonial past control of Korea, frictions within the
Korean minority in Japan, Liberal Democratic Party mind-set that
includes going steps beyond U.S. policies and a desire to show up
lingering socialist political threads in Japanese society.
Everyone knows that North Korea deserves extra scrutiny. But it is
beginning to look as though some LDP elements are exerting a proprietary
influence on Korean matters. Over the horizon, we see the same stirrings
of some Japanese politicians toward the future of Taiwan, another former
colony. Some say it is a good thing; at least they are showing some
interest in foreign affairs.
I'm the last person to be accused of lobbying for North Korea, but give
me a break: Japan has diplomatic relations with 189 nations in the world.
North Korea has been excluded from the list for 50 years, and only now
are now are serious talks toward normalization getting past square one.
The Perry report is the work of a superior intellect. He has raised the
"carrot and stick" strategy to a new level of respectability. The Sunshine
policy, given its origins, is remarkably optimistic. Both approaches are
more imaginative and sophisticated than Japan's crude "food diplomacy."
It is evident that much of the political foot-dragging on the Korean
issue comes from Tokyo, as well as from Washington, Seoul, and Pyongyang.
Edward Neilan (eneilan@crisscross.com) is a veteran journalist, based in Tokyo, who covers East Asia and writes weekly for World Tribune.com.