NK-Japan Cabinet Conference to Be Held at End of Month

The Japanese press reported on the 27th that the Japanese minister of Health, Labor, and Welfare, Sakaguchi Chikara, is to meet North Korean cabinet members in Singapore by the end of this month and discuss on the issue of aid for North Korean bomb victims.

Minister of Public Health, Kim Su-Hak, is expected to appear from the North Korean side. The North Korea – Japan cabinet conference is the first one since the foreign ministers’ conference that took place in Bangkok, Thailand, in July 2000. The upcoming conference has been requested by North Korea several times since December last year.

According to the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare, 900 atomic bomb victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are currently living in North Korea without the Japanese government’s aids, due to the absence of diplomatic relations between the two nations.

Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro hinted on his intention to urge North Korea to resolve the abduction issue, as he said, “This conference may deal with the abduction matter. If so, Japan’s position will be expressed.”

Meanwhile on the 26th, North Korean Red Cross accepted Japanese Red Cross’ suggestion that insisted on resuming the conference to discuss about the missing Japanese. Therefore, the meeting is to be resumed in April for the earliest.

North Korean Red Cross’ vice-secretary Kim Suk-Chul sent a letter in English via fax, and suggested “the conference be resumed at convenient time.” Previously on the 23rd, Japanese Red Cross requested North Korea for the meeting’s resumption.

Both nations’ Red Cross began communicating in September 1997, but ceased communication since the 4th conference in March 2003.

ksshim@donga.com