EDITORIAL: North Korea sanctions

A lack of substantial progress of the North Korea nuclear and abduction issues apparently prompted the government Friday to extend economic sanctions against Pyongyang by another six months. This means that all North Korean ships, including the cargo-passenger ferry Man Gyong Bong-92, once a frequent caller to these shores, will continue to be denied entry to Japanese ports. All imports from North Korea will continue to be prohibited. This is the third extension of these measures.

Japan's unilateral sanctions were first imposed in July 2006 to protest North Korea's test-firing of ballistic missiles in the Sea of Japan. When North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test the following October, Tokyo expanded its punitive steps.

Since then, a string of negotiations with North Korea have been held, either through the six-party framework that includes the United States, China, South Korea and Russia, or on a bilateral basis between Japan and North Korea. These talks have had their ups and downs, but they produced little tangible progress.

Above all, there is the grave matter of North Korea's refusal to honor its commitments to the six-party talks agreement to provide by the end of last year a "full and accurate declaration of its nuclear arms program." Nor has it completely disabled its nuclear facilities, as it had pledged to do. With regard to the abduction issue, it has been difficult of late to even find an opening for resuming bilateral negotiations.

The government's assessment is appropriate; the current situation does not warrant lifting the sanctions.

However, we must not forget the fact that having to impose sanctions upon a neighboring country is in itself an abnormal situation. The fault lies with North Korea, so of course Tokyo must try to force Pyongyang to remove the causes of contention. Yet, once the situation turns more favorable, then a flexible response of pushing and pulling will become essential. The objective is to make North Korea budge.

In that sense, when the government last extended the sanctions in October, it could have been possible to ease up a bit. Last summer, North Korea stopped and sealed the Yongbyon nuclear reactor and other facilities. Final nuclear disarmament was still a long way off, but it was nevertheless a meaningful step forward.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said in a statement this time around, "If North Korea takes tangible steps toward solving the numerous outstanding issues, we will be able to lift parts of, or all of (the sanctions)." It is important to send the signal that the Japanese government is ready to respond favorably to North Korean actions.

However, North Korea has been slow to move so far, and the process toward nuclear disarmament continues to stall.

It seems Pyongyang is unhappy about the fact that the United States has yet to remove North Korea from its list of states that sponsor terrorism. Yet, it is only reasonable that the United States should demand more transparent disclosure of North Korea's nuclear activities in the face of Pyongyang's uranium enrichment program, as well as new suspicions of a possible proliferation link in nuclear technology between North Korea and Syria.

There has been an increasing flurry of contacts between the United States and North Korea in an effort to break the impasse in the six-party talks. Work on finalizing the process for declaring the state of North Korea's nuclear program is in progress. North Korea should hurry to honor the promises it made in the six-party talks. That would be for North Korea's own good.

The Japanese government must contemplate how to wield its unilateral sanctions effectively as a diplomatic tool. The government should respond flexibly, once North Korea actually declares the state of its nuclear program, or actually disables its nuclear facilities. We urge the government to be supple and able in its diplomacy.

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 12(IHT/Asahi: April 15,2008)