The fourth round of six-party talks opened in Beijing yesterday. Although all sides can raise topic issues, everybody knows the talks must cling to the central question -- the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. To achieve substantial results in a limited time, the parties must focus on key questions and ignore side issues.  

However, the Japanese government thinks otherwise. It has been reportedly insisting on bringing the "abduction" issue to the negotiation table despite opposition from other sides.

In fact, for this event that happened in the 1970s and 80s when North Korean special agents abducted 13 Japanese nationals, Pyongyang had made a sincere apology to Japan as early as during Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's first North Korean visit in September 2002. In their Pyongyang Declaration signed by both parties, North Korea has made it clear in written form that "it would take appropriate measures so that these regrettable incidents, which took place under the abnormal bilateral relationship, would never happen in the future."

Over the past one and half a century, Japan has launched so many aggression wars and slaughtered civilians of so many countries. It abducted numerous Chinese, Koreans and Filipinos to its homeland to serve as slaves, military prostitutes and cannon fodder. The Japanese government has never sincerely repented and apologized for that, but remained lip-sealed on its history of crimes. Now it picks up North Korea's abduction issue again and clamors repeatedly for a solution regardless of other parties' opposition. Why?

Think it more carefully, and you will discover that the real winner in the Korean nuclear crisis is the Japanese right wing.

Unlike German Nazis, Japanese militarists escaped under special historical conditions the fate of being uprooted after the end of WWII. Their dream of staging a comeback never died. The right wing didn't have its way only because of the Japanese people who, having suffered bitterly in the war, have been insisting on safeguarding the pacifist constitution and opposing Japan's rearmament.

However, the public changed their mind since August 1998 when a North Korean missile flew across Japan, especially after October 2002 when Pyongyang began to drop hints, veiled or unveiled, that the country had successfully developed nuclear weapons. A poll in Japan conducted in June 2003 showed that 93 percent of the questioned believed North Korea is a "dangerous" country.

The Japanese government seized the opportunity and made it an excuse for speeding up rearmament. First it shook the base of the pacifist constitution by seeking for the legalization of sending troops overseas; then it attempted to break restrictions on "passive defense" and make sending troops overseas a permanent mechanism. After that the government sought to expand its defense scale under the excuse of addressing "new threat," which was followed by a revision of the Outline of National Defense. The next step would be a complete revision of the constitution to fulfill the dream of rising again as a military power.

So, there is much doubt about the motive behind Japan's insistence on dragging the abduction issue into six-party talks.

The Korean Peninsula nuclear issue is a question of collective security, therefore must be resolved within a security framework. Any attempt to bring everything in and pursue a "package" solution will only add further complications and leave the talks running against the original intention of all parties concerned.

(People's Daily July 27, 2005)