By Xinhua,
Tokyo : Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said Tuesday the normalization of relations between Japan and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) depends on the DPRK side.
“If the issue of past abduction of Japanese nationals and the nuclear and missile issues could be properly resolved, Japan could normalize relations with the DPRK even tomorrow,” Komura said at a press conference held at the Foreign Correspondents Club Japan.
The minister said the DPRK is the only country with which Japan has not yet normalized relations with, and Japan would like to address the problem at an early date.
“It depends entirely on them,” Komura added.
With regard to the United States’ scheduled delisting of the DPRK from the list of nations sponsoring terrorism, Komura urged the U.S. side to take the abduction issue into consideration and said he would raise the issue during talks with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the sidelines of the Group of Eight Foreign Ministers Meeting to be held in Kyoto later this week.
The normalization of ties between the DPRK and Japan is in the interests of both countries and peoples, the official DPRK news agency KCNA said Monday.
The normalization of the DPRK-Japan relationship is part of the six-nation talks agreement, said the KCNA.
It blamed the Japanese rightists’ attempts to blockade the establishment of the DPRK-Japan relations and warned Japan not to be a “trouble” as the six-party talks are making progress.
The DPRK has agreed to reopen an investigation into abductions of Japanese citizens, and Japan agreed to lift some sanctions imposed on the DPRK because of its nuclear programme after both sides held governmental talks in Beijing on June 11 and 12.