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US President Donald Trump (right) and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe prepare for a joint press conference at the White House on June 7. (Reuters)
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Washington Post reports US “expressed irritation” over Japan’s lack of notification
Japan appears to have had a top-secret meeting with North Korea in Vietnam last July following a North Korea-US summit on June 12 in Singapore. Citing anonymous sources, the Washington Post reported on Aug. 28 that Japanese Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office chief Shigeru Kitamura had a secret meeting in Vietnam last month with Kim Song-hye, head of the united front tactical office in the North Korean United Front Department. The newspaper also reported that US officials “expressed irritation” over Japan’s failure to provide prior notification about the encounter. While the specifics of the conversation at the meeting remain unknown, analysts speculated the issue of Japanese nationals abducted to North Korea may have been addressed. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga did not deny the meeting when asked about it during a regular press conference on Aug. 29. “I wish to refrain from speaking about every single thing that has been reported. In any event, we are working toward a comprehensive resolution for all matters, including the abductions and the [North Korean] nuclear and missile programs,” Suga said. Kitamura, who was named in the report as one of the participants in the meeting, is the head of the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office, an intelligence organization within the Japanese government. The meeting does not appear to have produced any significant outcomes. North Korea’s state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper has continued its recent pattern of “Japan-bashing,” with an Aug. 22 piece stressing that Japan “should be aware that it cannot move an inch into the future without resolving matters of past history.” Analyses of North Korea’s Aug. 28 release of Japanese tourist Tomoyuki Sugimoto after two weeks of detention have been varied, with some suggesting that North Korea was leaving room for relations with Tokyo to improve and others interpreting it as a sign of Pyongyang’s lack of interest in bargaining with Tokyo. Despite the two sides announcing plans to reinvestigate the abductee issue with their 2014 agreement in Stockholm, North Korea has reportedly continued to insist that there are “no surviving abductees.” Tokyo has refused to accept this claim, while Pyongyang backed out of the Stockholm agreement in Feb. 2016 after Japan intensified its sanctions in the wake of North Korea’s fourth nuclear test. By Cho Ki-weon, Tokyo correspondent Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]
