The assertion that Hiroshi Nakai, Japan’s former National Public Safety Commission Chairman and politician responsible for the abductions issue, made secret contact with North Korea in July has been causing ripples in Japan in recent days, and now it has come to light that a further two secret meetings also took place.
It has been widely reported in the Japanese media that Nakai and Song met on July 21st and 22nd in a hotel in downtown Changchun, a meeting that was heavily criticized by opposition politicians. However, Nakai originally denied that he had met Song at all.
Now, however, a Japanese diplomatic source explained to The Daily NK today, “Before Nakai, the former abductions issue head, met with Song Il Ho, North Korea’s negotiator for the normalization of North Korea-Japan diplomatic relations, in Changchun, China, they also met two more times in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The source added, however, that the existence of the meetings with North Korean officials does not seem to be of huge concern, saying, “Nakai is no longer the abductions issue head,” and adding, “North Korea may have demanded some form of price for attending talks, but the current Naoto Kan administration does not have the political influence to make any promises. For that reason, it seems that these moves are not particularly meaningful.”
Meanwhile, another source from within Japanese diplomacy has asserted that the talks were actually related to a long-running legal issue.
The source explained, “Obviously Ambassador Song Il Ho would reveal the contents of these discussions. We knew that. Rather than being for the North Korea-Japan diplomatic normalization problem, it was aimed at solving the problem of the seizure of Chongryon HQ in Chiyoda, Tokyo.”
Chongryon HQ is currently facing seizure by the Japanese authorities for the non-payment of debt. In a judgment last year, the Japanese Supreme Court decided that the group’s headquarters could be seized.
