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Press Briefing Information

How will Japan-North Korea Relations Proceed in 2005?

Dr. Masao Okonogi
(Professor, Faculty of Law, Keio University)


Date: February 14,2005
Time: 15:00 - 16:30
Place: FPC Conference Room (6th floor, Nippon Press Center Bldg.)

Between Japan and North Korea lie various pending issues such as that of abducted Japanese nationals and security, including North Korea's nuclear development program. In spite of Prime Minister Koizumi's second visit to North Korea in May 2004, in solving the issue of abducted Japanese nationals, indispensable in promoting Japan-North Korea normalization talks, calls to put pressure on the country by, for instance, economic sanctions are heightening not only among the Japanese people but also in the ruling party and some members of opposition parties, since North Korea has broken the Japan-DPRK Pyongyang Declaration. The Six-Party Talks on North Korean Issues focusing on the nuclear issue have shown no progress since the third round was held in June 2004. In the situation where the revised Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Control Law and a special measures law on the prohibition of port calls by specified ships were enacted in succession, what measures will Japan take toward North Korea in 2005? How will the inauguration of the Bush administration's second term influence Japan-North Korea relations? FPC has asked Dr. Masao Okonogi, Professor of Keio University, to share his views on this subject.