Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Tuesday, January 3, 2006
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North Korea rips Abe for linking abduction issue
Tuesday, January 3, 2006
BEIJING (Kyodo) North Korea on Monday slammed Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe for saying resolution of the North's past abductions of Japanese nationals is necessary before diplomatic relations can be normalized.
"What is most essential for settling the issues related to the DPRK-Japan relations is not the 'abduction issue' but the issue of Japan's liquidation of its past crimes," the official Minju Joson newspaper said in a commentary carried by the Korean Central News Agency. DPRK stands for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.
"The present hostile relations between the DPRK and Japan originated from Japan's crime-woven past and these bilateral relations have not yet improved chiefly because Japan has not redressed its crimes," the commentary said.
On Dec. 26, a day after the two sides agreed to resume normalization talks, Abe reiterated at a news conference in Tokyo that Japan has "a basic and well-established principle that there will be no normalization of diplomatic relations without a resolution of the abduction issue."
The Minju Joson commentary accused Abe of "distorting the basic issue."
The Japan Times: Jan. 3, 2006
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01-03-2006, 04:34 PM
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