Greetings,
"The Council on East Asian Community (CEAC) E-Letter" is delivered electronically once every month, free of charge, to readers in the world interested in Japanese thinking on an East Asian Community and other related international affairs by the Council on East Asian Community (CEAC), all-Japan intellectual platform for the study of an East Asian Community.
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ITO Kenichi
President, CEAC
"CEAC Commentary of the Month"
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"CEAC Commentary of the Month" presents a monthly publication of views of members of CEAC on an East Asian Community and other related international affairs. The views expressed herein are the author's own and should not be attributed to CEAC.
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No Independent State Tolerates Abduction of its Citizens
By HANAOKA Nobuaki
Journalist
It came as no surprise that the United States has removed North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. Two months' delay of the removal, originally scheduled for this August, carries no political implications. Some people in Japan quite naively regard this delay as a sign of solicitude of the US towards Japan in relation to the abduction issue. But this is wide of the mark. Rather, we should assume that the abduction issue has been no concern of the US from the outset. Government officials of Japan, especially the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, must have been aware of this fact. The removal was to be carried out sooner or later. If Japan could have lead the US to give it a second thought by every political and diplomatic means, Japan should deserve due credit for its "hidden strength." Of course, this is not the case. Here lie the political responsibilities of the Japanese government. It might have given the Japanese public a wrong message that the US would not remove North Korea from the list, as long as the abduction issue remains unsolved. In fact, it was quite the other way around. For all the member states in the six-party talks other than Japan, their immediate concern was North Korea's nuclear weapon and missiles. While expressing sympathy and regret to the issue, they hold in their heart that the abduction issue is a bilateral problem between Japan and North Korea, which is to be solved by themselves.
The Japanese government should frankly acknowledge the fact. So far, it has neglected to explain to the nation the harsh reality that the removal of North Korea from the list has indeed little to do with the abduction issue. The Japanese government has glossed over this reality and did an abrupt backflip in the face of the removal. This kind of attitude would seriously undermine the public's confidence in politics. The bottom line is that the abduction issue is not the most immediate concern for countries other than Japan. To them, containment of North Korea's nuclear weapon and missiles was the most prioritized issue. If so, Japan should tackle the abduction issue on its own. Foreign agents infiltrated the Japanese border and abducted a large number of innocent Japanese citizens. This is nothing but the epitome of a state crime that infringes Japanese sovereignty. No independent state tolerates this enormity. It is by right a duty of an independent sovereign state to dispatch a commando unit to perform a special mission to recapture the abductees. Japan has, as it seems, abandoned this option in the first place.
Japan has failed in its task to protect the lives and property of its citizens. As the Association of the Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea points out, the abduction issue is "an ongoing terrorism." Setting aside the promise to conduct reinvestigation on abduction, North Korea has not even tried to establish an investigation committee on the abduction. Prime Minister ASO Taro expressed his discomfort with the US government at the House of Councilor's Budget Committee. There is a slight change in his attitude compared to the way he reacted when he first received the report of the removal of North Korea from the list. The Japanese government should be accused of its lack in foresight as it was not prepared, though amid the turbulence of domestic politics, to react when the US should remove North Korea from the list. If we are deprived of the option to resort to force, what could be done instead? Japan has no choice but to reinforce the sanction policy in its own right. Japan should not go hand in hand with other countries in providing energy assistance to North Korea. The abduction issue poses a fundamental question upon raison d'etre of a sovereign state.
(This is the English translation of an article which originally appeared on the BBS "Hyakka-Somei" of CEAC on 6 November, 2008, and was posted on "CEAC Commentary" on 25 November, 2008.)
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For more views and opinions in the backnumber of "CEAC Commentary," the list of which for the past six months is as follows, please refer to:
http://www.ceac.jp/e/commentary/backnumber.html
No.51 Six-Year-Old NEAT Scores High
by ISHIGAKI Yasuji, Professor of Tokai University Law School
(22 October, 2008)
No.50 What Japan expects of Ambassador KWON Chulhyun
by OE Shinobu, Professor of Edogawa University
(24 September, 2008)
No.49 What Japan Should and Could Do for Development Aid to Africa
by IRIYAMA Akira, Guest Professor of Cyber University, and Executive Research Advisor of International Development Center of Japan
(22 August, 2008)
No.48 On the Historically Significant Agreement on Joint Development of Gas Fields between Japan and China
by SAKURADA Jun, Associate Professor of Toyo Gakuen University
(21 July, 2008)
No.47Japan-China Relationship Entered New Stage
by SHINDO Eiichi, Professor Emeritus of Tsukuba University
(25 June, 2008)
"CEAC Updates"
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"CEAC Updates" introduces to you latest events, announcements and/or publications of CEAC.
Event
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The 30th Policy Plenary Meeting Held to Discuss "The Recent Development and Future Challenges in the Regional Cooperation in Trade and Investment"
The 30th Policy Plenary Meeting of the Council on East Asian Community (CEAC) was held on 27 November at the conference room of the Japan Forum on International Relations to discuss "The Recent Development and Future Challenges in the Regional Cooperation in Trade and Investment." Prof. URATA Shujiro, Member of CEAC and Professor of Waseda University, made a keynote report, which was followed by an active exchange of views among Members of CEAC.
For more, please refer to:
http://www.ceac.jp/e/policy-summary/030.html
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