Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi may have to rethink his strategy of dialogue and pressure in dealing with recalcitrant Pyongyang on the abduction issue.

Having blatantly sent back human remains that Japanese testing shows are not of abductee Megumi Yokota, Pyongyang has given the Japanese public yet another reason to call for economic sanctions to be imposed against the reclusive North.

But that is no easy task, given Koizumi's past policy of trying to keep the door to talks open with the option-so far not exercised-of adopting very stern measures to keep the North in line.

With public sentiment riding high against Pyongyang, this latest twist in the abduction saga likely will fuel calls for stiff measures in dealing with North Korea, even from within the ruling coalition.

And while Koizumi has good reason to doubt North Korea's sincerity, he reiterated Thursday that he intends to try to continue negotiations to determine why falsely identified remains were handed to Japan.

One reason Koizumi has felt forced to depend on dialogue is because government officials have no clear idea of what course negotiations would take if sanctions were imposed.

For its part, North Korea has said it would regard such behavior as an act of war; not a pleasing prospect given that the unpredictable North may have nuclear warheads.

In addition, tests Thursday on remains that North Korea said might be of another abductee, Kaoru Matsuki, showed they were of someone else.

Explaining the dilemma now facing the government, an LDP Diet member who is close to Koizumi said, ``If sanctions are imposed, North Korea will undoubtedly use that as an excuse to boycott the six-way talks on its nuclear weapons development program.''

Koizumi also will be hard-pressed to convince hard-liners in his administration to exercise more patience. This, in particular, applies to Shinzo Abe, the ruling party's acting secretary-general.

When Koizumi went to Pyongyang for his first summit meeting with Kim Jong Il in 2002, Abe, then deputy chief Cabinet secretary, advised his boss to break off the talks as soon as North Korea admitted to a past policy of state-sanctioned abductions and announced that eight of 13 Japanese abductees were already dead.

Abe echoed that sentiment again on Wednesday, saying, ``If this is the result of the investigation that Kim Jong Il said should start from scratch, there is no sense in even continuing with negotiations.''

The LDP has been serving as bad cop to the government's good cop in dealings with North Korea. The party pressed ahead with legislation to give the government alternatives for imposing economic sanctions even as officials continued holding talks with their North Korean counterparts.

One thing is clear: North Korea's latest curve ball on the abduction issue caught the government off-guard.

``Our strategy was to deflect persistent calls for sanctions from the LDP through a continuation of talks,'' said one high-ranking Foreign Ministry official. ``But that scenario has now gone haywire and none of us can think what to do next.''

Quite why North Korea chose this avenue of deception is baffling.

Many officials here believe North Korea presented the ``evidence'' with the confidence that Japanese scientists would not uncover the truth.

``They misread the level of Japan's testing capability,'' said one Foreign Ministry official.

Since North Korea has limited resources for DNA testing, the remains were likely not properly examined before being turned over to Japan.

The findings also cast doubt on the individual named Kim Chol Jun, who claimed to be Yokota's husband. The man said he had dug up the remains, had them cremated again and kept them in an urn at home so he could be ``close'' to Megumi, who was abducted in 1977 at age 13. The remains were handed to Japanese officials during working-level bilateral talks in November.

Officials noted that the man refused to be photographed by Japanese officials during their interview and he was uncooperative in providing hair and blood samples for DNA testing. Foreign Ministry officials suggested that an imposter may have been brought in to meet the Japanese delegation.

DNA testing of cremated remains is a very difficult procedure and most of the work was done by Teikyo University, considered one of the top institutions for this particular task.(IHT/Asahi: December 10,2004)