North Korea asks compensation, apology from Japan

In this undated photo, provided on Aug. 19, 2018, by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, center, visits a construction site during a visit to the city of Samjiyon, a remote northern city near the Chinese bo. Yonhap

By Kim Yoo-chul

While North Korea has greatly reduced criticism of South Korea and the United States as the countries are involved in diplomatic talks, it has increased its attacks toward new target _ Japan.

Pyongyang demanded full compensation from Tokyo for it past colonial rule of the peninsula and an apology for “past wrongdoings” as a condition for improved relations. It said Japan's past actions would be labeled crimes against humanity today.

“The Japanese reactionaries have now gone more and more impudent, far from apologizing and reflecting on their hideous past crimes,” a spokesman for the North's Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee was quoted in a statement carried in English by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

“What is all the more intolerable is that the Abe group is adding new crimes to the piles of hideous past crimes, far from atoning for them. While keeping mum about the hideous crime that took the lives of millions of Koreans, they are hyping the issue of a few abductees,” the statement continued.

Japan has long adopted a harder line against North Korea than South Korea or the United States. The North has therefore increased its criticism in an apparent effort to divide Japan from its allies. Pyongyang was also critical of Tokyo's move to possibly providing some financial assistance to ensure denuclearization of the peninsula.

The statement is at odds with Pyongyang's “attempts” to develop mutual trust with Seoul and Washington to see “substantial progress” in the nuclear disarmament talks. South Korea and the United States are “completely in sync” on North Korea, according to diplomatic sources.

But Sean King, senior vice president at New York-based consulting firm Park Strategies said Tokyo's fear of being left out of critical decisions that affects it is known as “Japan passing.” The term comes from “Korea passing,” coined by Korean journalist, to describe South Korea facing the same predicament over U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un dealing directly with each other.

Kim met with South Korean President Moon Jae-in twice this year, while a third summit is set for next month in Pyongyang. Kim also held a summit with Trump in Singapore, June 12.

But, so far, Kim has not met with any Japanese leaders. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was hoping to hold a meeting with him at next month's Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Russia; however, diplomatic sources say it's “highly unlikely” that Kim will participate. Japan wants to directly touch on the issue of the North's abduction of Japanese civilians in the 1970s and 1980s.

“Japan has to clearly understand that without atonement for its past crimes, it can never take even one step toward the future,” the North's statement said. Japan and North Korea have never had official diplomatic relations.

Officials say North Korea's demand for compensation related to colonial rule could be over “billions of dollars.”

“Japan still believes it paid North Korea decades ago; however, changing relations between the two Koreas and Washington and Pyongyang may pressurize Japanese leaders to reconsider the North's fresh demands,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul.