“Ask Kim, Jung-Il to Visit Japan If the North Korea-Japan Summit Progresses”

Japanese media reported on the 4th that the Japanese Prime Minister Goizumi Junichiro decided to ask the Chairman of the National Defense Committee of North Korea to visit Japan if there would be progress in the solving of kidnapping suspicion of Japanese people by North Korea during the North Korea-Japan Summit on the 17th.

The media reported that policy like that was according to a conclusion that it was necessary to build confidence and friendship through visiting of leaders in order to progress the North Korea-Japan relationship.

According to the source, the timing of invitation to visit Japan will be after the Chairman Kim’s visit to Korea because ‘the reformation of the North Korea-Japan relationship cannot be ahead of the reformation of South-North relationship,’ and the Nihon Geijai reported that Japan will adjust the schedule by discussing with the Korean government.

The newspaper also reported that the both sides of North Korea and Japan started to adjust opinions toward putting the result of the Summit in an ‘Associated Statement’ form. The newspaper added that that was to grope for early reopening of the amity negotiation by exchanging written statements about the need of the normalization of diplomatic relations and solving of current problems.

The Nikkei added that the form of the statement would be similar to the ‘Tokyo Declaration,’ which was exchanged in 1993 in relation to solving of the northern territory problem and contracting of a peace treaty between Russia and Japan.

The Asahi reported that the Prime Minister Goizumi was planning to conclude the negotiation if they agreed to reopen the amity negotiation during this Summit.

The newspaper added that it was because of an anxiety that the normalization of diplomatic relations might be difficult due to changes of national and international condition changes if the negotiation took long time considering the President Kim, Dae-Jung’s term would be finished the beginning of next year.

The reparation of colonial rule issues itself needs understanding of the Korean government because Japan wants to set the amount of reparation based on the ‘half a billion economical cooperation,’ which was agreed during the amity negotiation between Korea and Japan in 1965, and reflect the price rise.

Japan proposed the ‘Basic Relationship Treaty (Proposal)’ during the forth amity negotiation on August 1991, and North Korea proposed the ‘Good Neighborly Friendship Treaty (Proposal)’ during the 5th negotiation on November; therefore, the basic formation has been already made.

Young-Ee Lee yes202@donga.com