Koizumi must get Bush to ease up on tensions.

One thing is certain about the stalemate over North Korea's nuclear program. Each passing day with no prospect of a breakthrough in sight is a squandered opportunity. The same can be said of the issue of abducted Japanese citizens. Relations between Japan and North Korea have deteriorated sharply in the nearly 2 years since Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Pyongyang for summit talks for the first time and issued the Pyongyang Declaration.

Last month, North Korea announced it would stay away indefinitely from six-nation talks on the nuclear issue and formally declared it had manufactured nuclear weapons. Nothing is known for certain about the extent of North Korea's nuclear weapons development. But if it does indeed possess nuclear weapons, that poses a grave security issue for this country.

The more time passes, the further the North goes in developing nuclear weapons and missiles. Pyongyang must be drawn back to the table of six-way talks. A framework must be worked out at an early date for North Korea to give up its nuclear program. These key points are what the Japanese government should be endeavoring to realize right now.

The abduction issue has bogged down over differences between the two governments on the supposed remains of Megumi Yokota. North Korea wants to put the matter behind it by the return to Japan of the five abductees and their family members. It has refused to respond with sincerity to Japan's requests for information on other missing Japanese or start a full investigation of the matter. Meantime, the Japanese public grows increasingly bitter, and calls are growing daily for economic sanctions to be imposed against the North. By referring to economic sanction, Japanese people want North Korea to be aware of their anger, which makes North Korea feel pressure. The fact is that sanctions imposed by Japan without the participation of South Korea and China would not be very effective. Also, there is no way of knowing whether sanctions would prompt North Korea to offer more information about Japanese citizens missing since the 1970s and '80s.

The U.S. government worries that sanctions would have a negative effect on the six-way talks.

There must be a way to break the stalemate. And we believe there is one. Koizumi must call U.S. President George Bush to try to get him to relax tensions between the United States and North Korea.

Even though North Korea is refusing to take part in the six-way talks, it has dropped hints that it would be willing to sit at the negotiating table if the atmosphere vis-a-vis the United States improves. The North suggested that it would be amenable to negotiation if the United States drops its hostile attitude toward the North and guarantees the safety of the North's regime. All this suggests that North Korea may be willing to make deals with the United States under such conditions.

The Bush administration clearly does not intend to hold bilateral talks with North Korea for the moment. Nor does it seem in any hurry to strike a bargain as long as Pyongyang does not export nuclear arms to a third party or pose a direct threat to the United States itself.

But that is not the case with Japan. Both the North's nuclear development and the abduction issue are urgent matters for Tokyo. If progress is made in the six-way talks as the United States accepts direct talk in one way or another, the atmosphere will be much improved. China, which is in the chair for the six-way talks, will be in a better position to persuade North Korea.

Washington may drag its feet in giving North Korea what it wants for maintaining its regime. But this is a matter for diplomatic negotiation. Bush himself referred to diplomatic solution of the North's nuclear program in his State of the Union message the other day.

We cannot be sanguine about North Korea's actions. It is incumbent on Koizumi to figure out a way to make some sort of headway.

Koizumi already has close relations with Bush, courtesy of Japan's cooperation with the United States in the Iraq war. This policy aspect aside, Koizumi should use all the diplomatic resources at his disposal to find a solution to these pressing issues.

--The Asahi Shimbun, March 7(IHT/Asahi: March 8,2005)