In justifying the U.S. announcement that it is taking Stalinist North Korea off the list of terror sponsors, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has insisted that the "concessions" from communist China's de facto colony make the move worthwhile.
Sadly, this is the common reaction of officials who have become either delusional in the face of repeated dangerous behavior from Pyongyang and Beijing or simply too exhausted to fight it. Thus, the abduction not only of Japanese citizens (the Japanese government recognizes 16 Japanese citizens as having been abducted, although the total number may be around 80), but also an American refugee (Kim Dong-shik, a U.S. permanent resident and Christian missionary who was living in China at the time) goes into the memory hole. And never mind the Stalinist regime's horrific treatment of its own people.
Lest anyone think this is limited only to Beijing's Korean colony, keep in mind that the Chinese communists themselves continue to harass and intimidate exiles in the free world, as in Flushing, New York, these past six weeks, kidnap (at best) hundreds of citizens of occupied Tibet, and arm anti-American terrorists. Yet the buildup to the 2008 communist Olympiad continues apace.
There are still some, however, who refuse to be deluded or overwhelmed. They will not give up the fight, and they are calling on their leaders (and the rest of us) not to abandon them. They are the relatives of the Japanese abductees, and their open letter to the Japanese Prime Minister is below, in full.
June 17, 2008
An Urgent Appeal Addressed to:
Honorable Yasuo Fukuda,
Prime Minister of Japan, and
Mr. Nobutaka Machimura,
Chief Cabinet Secretary
On June 13, in the wake of Japan-North Korea talks in Beijing, the Japanese government announced that it would lift Japan's sanctions "partially" in exchange for North Korea's promise to "re-investigate" the abduction of Japanese citizens without clinging to its standard position that "the abduction issue has been resolved."
It is obvious that North Korea changed its longstanding position and came to the negotiating table to discuss the abduction issue only as a result of pressure applied in recent years from both Japan and the international community. However, by proceeding with the lifting of sanctions prematurely at a stage where repatriation of the abductees remains unforeseeable, Japan's unilateral easing of pressure on North Korea would be inconsistent with the "action for action" principle and is therefore unacceptable.
In particular, reinstatement of port visits by North Korean vessels, including large freighter passenger ships such as the Man-gyong-bong, poses a problem because the definition of "humanitarian goods" eligible to be boarded remains unclear with the possible effect becoming a major lifting, not a "partial" lifting of existing sanctions.
This approach cannot be tolerated, even if it is presented as a negotiating technique. Even though the Japanese government maintains it has not changed its policy, the explanation is not plausible.
There are reports that procedures for reinstatement of the Man-gyong-bong's Japanese port visits were initiated several days before the reopening of the recent Japan-North Korea negotiation in Beijing. If true, this would be a very suspicious and mysterious development suggesting that somehow the content of the Japanese position was leaked in advance to the Kim Jong-il regime.
Our concern is that Japan's partial lifting of sanctions could accelerate the movement in the United States for lifting North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism. If that happens, the likelihood increases that North Korea would buy time by resorting to deception without conducting an actual investigation that would bring about the return of the abduction victims.
Under these circumstances, we strongly urge the members of the Fukuda government to reinvigorate the government's efforts and determination to accomplish Japan's original purpose of resolving the abduction issue by bringing all the abductees home.
We urge the Japanese government to undertake the following measures:
1. To sufficiently and intelligibly explain to the Japanese people whether or not the Japanese government policy on the abduction issue has been changed
2. To refrain from lifting any sanctions until North Korea conducts a satisfactory "reinvestigation that leads to the repatriation of victims"
3. To impose tougher sanctions if North Korea prolongs its investigation despite its promise
4. To advise the United States that as long as the country of North Korea does not take concrete action to allow repatriation of all of the abduction victims, it is Japan's position that there would be no substantive progress on the abduction issue and to ask our ally the United States, therefore, not to remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism
Sincerely,
Shigeo Iizuka, chairman of the Association of the Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea (AFVKN)
Katsumi Sato, chairman of the National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea (NARKN) Takeo Hiranuma, chairman of the Parliamentarian League for Early Repatriation of Japanese Citizens Kidnapped by North Korea
D.J. McGuire is cofounder of the China e-Lobby and the author of Dragon in the Dark: How and Why Communist China Helps Our Enemies in the War on Terror.