The Japanese and American officials on hand at the summit agreed to have the above exchange kept out of the press coverage of the two leaders’ meeting. Koizumi went along with this, evidently, but Hoshi nevertheless brought this information to the attention of the public through his column. I saluted his willingness to stand up for the people’s right to know even as I gasped at the affront that the prime minister’s words represented.

 
I have heard several times from North Korean contacts that Pyongyang sees Koizumi as easy to deal with; that the real obstacle on the Japanese side is public opinion, as seen in the activities of and support enjoyed by the National Association for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Korea and the Association of the Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea. I had never thought this information to be reliable enough to put in print, coming as it did from the North, but reading Hoshi’s article convinced me that this truly is the case.

 
When the Bush administration first shifted the focus of its North Korea policy to the six-party talks, which also brought China, Japan, Russia, and South Korea to the table, it was largely due to the humiliation Washington had suffered when Pyongyang ignored the restrictions of the 1994 Agreed Framework, an accord prompting it to give up its nuclear weapons program in exchange for fuel oil and new reactors that do not produce weapons-grade radioactive material. The idea was that bringing all these nations into the picture, and showing North Korean leader Kim Jong-il that he was surrounded by countries engaged in the process, would bring him back into line. President Bush has kept the six-party talks at the core of the American approach to North Korea.

 
When Koizumi made his suggestion to the president, he was repeating the same request that Kim has been making for US?North Korea bilateral contact. This amounts to nothing more than a fundamental rejection of the American position on the matter, and it is no wonder that Bush glared angrily at the comment. Tellingly, some in the US Republican Party now refer to Koizumi as “another Roh Moo-hyun,” the South Korean president who has been making similar statements to Washington. This state of affairs is no laughing matter.

 
I believe that Koizumi’s ill-advised stance of holding off on applying economic sanctions against North Korea stems primarily from ignorance of what needs to be done with respect to that nation. He is the president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party; the members of his party, particularly those serving in the National Diet, must think it bizarre that their leader speaks on behalf of the head of the terrorist state that has kidnapped Japanese citizens, relaying his arguments to the president of Japan’s number-one ally.

This is something that these lawmakers should be shouting about, even at the risk of losing their own positions in the party. Lacking in spirit and backbone, though?traits they unfortunately seem to share with most Japanese nowadays?they will likely remain quiet.

 
(Translated by Japan Echo Inc.)