Abe Gearing Up for Talks with N. Korea on Abductions

In line with the upcoming cabinet reshuffle, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to strengthen the hand of his office in efforts to resolve North Korea's past abductions of Japanese nationals, according to informed sources. In the reshuffle, set for Wednesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga is expected to retain his concurrent post of minister for the abduction issue. Also, Abe is arranging to appoint Shigeru Kitamura, director of cabinet intelligence, as head of the secretariat at the National Security Council, a key post in the diplomacy of the prime minister's office. Kitamura reportedly held secret talks with North Korea last year. At a news conference on Aug. 26 after a Group of Seven summit in France, Abe said he had secured the support of all other G-7 leaders for Japanese efforts to resolve the abduction issue. "We will seize every opportunity to act aggressively," he said. Abe's greater emphasis on the resolution of the abduction issue reflects the impasse in Japan's negotiations with Russia to settle their decades-old territorial dispute. Abe won a third term as president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in September last year on a platform of the final settlement of Japan's post-World War II diplomacy. But Russia's tough stance has clouded the prospects for progress in talks on four Russian-held northwestern Pacific islands captured from Japan by Soviet troops in the closing days of the war. Likewise, there has been little headway in the campaign to bring home Japanese abduction victims in North Korea, but an official said the government has no choice but to focus energy on the abduction issue in order to make some diplomatic achievement under Abe. Suga, who is expected to be reappointed in the cabinet reshuffle, is knowledgeable about the history of the abduction issue and many believe that there will be no change in his concurrent role as minister for the abduction issue. The envisaged appointment of Kitamura, originally from the National Police Agency, as head of the secretariat at the National Security Council, is widely regarded as an attempt to strengthen the involvement of the prime minister's office in the abduction issue. Kitamura is likely to replace Shotaro Yachi, the first head of the secretariat. Yachi, former vice foreign minister, was expected to be succeeded by someone formerly with the Foreign Ministry and Kitamura's expected choice has taken many in the government by surprise. Kitamura is seen as a close aide to Abe, having served as executive secretary to the prime minister during Abe's first administration. At a time when the initiative led by the Foreign Ministry has been unable to persuade North Korea to sit at the negotiating table again, Kitamura reportedly held behind-the-scenes talks with a senior North Korean official in charge of reunification in July last year. Abe is expected to attend a national conference on the abduction issue in Tokyo on Sept. 16 after the cabinet shake-up and express his determination to make the best of the revamped government lineup and bring a solution to the abduction issue. But a Foreign Ministry official said North Korea is interested solely in talks with the United States. Unless this situation changes, it is difficult to reopen talks on the abduction issue, the official said, and many in the government share the view. END