NK asks for food aid from Japan, US, shuns S. Korea

North Korea is known to be negotiating with Japan as well as the U.S. on receiving food aid after ruling out talks with South Korea.

A diplomatic source in Seoul said Tuesday, “Hiroshi Nakai, former Japanese minister of state for the abduction issue, contacted Song Il Ho, a North Korean ambassador in charge of the normalization of relations between Pyongyang and Tokyo, for the second straight day today in Shenyang, China," adding, "While discussing (the North`s previous abductions of Japanese nationals), they are also talking about food aid to the North.” Conditions for the aid as well as the quantity remain unknown, however.

On the North`s contact with Japan, South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry spokesman Cho Byeong-je said, “We are in the process of confirming this and have asked Tokyo about the matter.” A government source in Seoul said, however, “The provision of food is the sole bargaining chip Japan can present to North Korea to resolve the abduction issue,” adding, “The Japanese Foreign Ministry remains silent on the progress of the negotiations and we await the answer from Tokyo.”

In China in August 2008, the North and Japan agreed to reinvestigate the abduction issue, but this fizzled out after the Democratic Party of Japan took power in 2009. At that time, Tokyo urged Pyongyang to determine the whereabouts of the remaining 17 Japanese nationals abducted by the North in the 1970s and 80s. Five Japanese abductees returned home in 2002.

Prior to its latest alleged negotiations with Japan, North Korea is known to have met American officials in New York at the end of last year to ask Washington to increase the proportion of grain in 24 tons of U.S. food aid. The U.S. rejected the request but continued to contact North Korea over the phone this year.

Seoul ruled out food aid to Pyongyang, saying, “No change has been made to our principle stance that the mass provision of food has political motives (unlike humanitarian assistance).”

shcho@donga.com