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Sweden seeking a resolution to the issue of Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea

Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is considering a new bill for North Korea sanctions that would restore punitive measures lifted in July 2014.

It’s a signal that Tokyo has begun looking for an exit strategy from the Stockholm agreement it signed with North Korea in May of last year.

Japan’s NHK network reported on May 7 that the LDP‘s headquarters for addressing the abduction of Japanese citizens by North Korea plans to set up a new working team and compile a new list of economic sanctions to present to the government by this summer.

The new measures would include a reinstatement of some of the previous sanctions previously lifted with the Stockholm agreement, the report said.

The governments in North Korea and Japan previously reached the agreement at a meeting in the Swedish capital in late May 2014. Its terms included Pyongyang’s establishment of a special committee for a “comprehensive investigation of all Japanese people” in North Korea, including abductees, in exchange for Japan‘s lifting of sanctions on travel, remittances, and entry into Japanese ports for humanitarian purposes.

Japan delivered on its promise to lift some sanctions after North Korea officially launched the special committee last July.

But the developments so far have failed to live up to Tokyo’s hopes. Despite repeated demands from Japan, North Korea has yet to submit findings from its first investigation, which includes the abductee issue.

In late May, Japanese police conducted a search and seizure on the home of General Association of Korean Residents (Chongryon) chairman Ho Jong-man, citing alleged involvement in the import of banned North Korean button mushrooms by a Zainichi Korean-run food company. North Korea responded with a Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) report on April 2 to “strongly denounce the recent unprecedented infringement on national sovereignty by Japanese police, who forcibly searched the homes of Chongryon supervising workers.”

“There cannot be dialogue between the North Korean and Japanese governments under the circumstances,” the piece added.

Keiji Furuya, the head of the LDP headquarters on the abduction issue, called the lack of progress in the year since Japan lifted its sanctions “unacceptable.”

“We will do everything in our power to apply pressure and ensure that an acceptable solution is achieved,” Furuya said.

The message is a signal from Tokyo that it is willing to abandon the Stockholm agreement and restore the sanctions lifted a year ago if Pyongyang does not change its approach.

By Gil Yun-hyung, Tokyo correspondent

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