The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Wednesday blasted Japan for planning to prolong sanctions against the DPRK, saying it would worsen the antagonizing DPRK-Japan relations, a DPRK newspaper reported.
The solution to the nuclear issue requires confidence building among relevant countries. But Japan's attempt to protract the sanctions against the DPRK was to deliberately make impediments on the nuclear issue and such provocation against the DPRK would hinder the denuclearization progress on the Korean Peninsula, saida commentary carried by the official Rodong Sinmun.
Recently, senior Japanese officials, including Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura and Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura, said Japan would not lift sanctions imposed on the DPRK since October 2006 and set to expire on April 13 due to the DPRK's missile launch and nuclear test, unless progress is made on the nuclear issue and "abduction issue."
The "abduction issue," which had already been solved, was irrelevant to the six-party talks, said the commentary. Japan schemed to hinder the the efforts to solve the nuclear issue by sticking to the issue.
At the 2002 DPRK-Japan summit, the DPRK confirmed that its agents had abducted 13 Japanese during the 1970s and 1980s and those held responsible for the abduction were punished.
Five of the abductees were allowed to return home in 2002, and Pyongyang said the eight others had died in the DPRK.
Japan, however, said some of the abductees might still be alive and had demanded definitive proof of their deaths.
Source:Xinhua
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