Japan lifts some N. Korea sanctions amid report of surviving abductees

Friday, 4 July 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

REUTERS: Japan decided on Thursday to ease some sanctions on North Korea in return for its reopening of a probe into the fate of Japanese citizens abducted by the reclusive state decades ago, as a fresh report emerged that some of them were alive. Japan will lift travel curbs to and from North Korea and end restrictions on the amount of money that can be sent or brought to the impoverished North without notifying Japanese authorities. It will also allow port calls by North Korean ships for humanitarian purposes. “This is just a start,” Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has made the fate of the abductees a focus of his political career, told reporters. “We will make every effort to achieve a complete resolution of this issue.”

Easing the sanctions will likely have only a minimal economic impact, but it could be a first step towards repairing long-chilled ties between Tokyo and Pyongyang. The decision comes at a time of persistent international concern about the volatile north’s nuclear and missile programs. Abe said the Government had determined that North Korea took an unprecedented step in establishing a new entity to investigate all Japanese nationals involved. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, however, told reporters separately that Abe was not considering a visit to Pyongyang in the autumn, as some media have speculated. The Nikkei business daily said on Thursday that North Korea had handed Japan the names of at least 10 of its nationals said to be living in that country, including some of those believed to have been abducted. Proof that some of the missing Japanese are alive would almost certainly boost Abe’s popularity. Suga however said the government had not received any report of such a list. Tokyo will analyse the list to see if any names match those of reported abductees, and Pyongyang is expected use the list to confirm their whereabouts, the daily said. Japan has stressed that its decision does not mean it is out of step with the United States and South Korea on dealing with Pyongyang, but some analysts said cracks were starting to show.