Japan-North Korea Relations: Selected Issues

Publication Date: November 2003

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Government

Type:

Coverage: Japan Korea (North)

Abstract:

Japan and North Korea have not established official relations since the Korean Peninsula, which the Japanese Empire annexed in 1910, was liberated from Japanese rule and divided into two separate states following Japan's defeat in World War II. Attempts to establish normal relations in the early 1990s and again in 2000 ended in failure, due to seemingly unresolvable obstacles. In September 2002, a one-day summit was held in Pyongyang between Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, the first ever between the leaders of the two countries. Koizumi and Kim momentarily appeared to break longstanding stalemates on several issues and agreed to restart bilateral normalization talks, but the talks subsequently stalled, due to two developments: North Korea's apparent admission to U.S. officials in October 2002 that it had a secret nuclear weapons program based on the process of uranium enrichment; and popular outrage in Japan at Kim Jong-il's admission that North Korea kidnapped 13 Japanese in the 1970s and 1980 and brought them to North Korea to live. Subsequently, according to the North Korean government, eight of whom died.

Japan's role is potentially critical in the current crisis over North Korea's nuclear weapons programs for a number of reasons. Most importantly, Japan has promised North Korea a large-scale economic aid package to compensate for the Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula from 1910-1945, much as it gave South Korea economic assistance when Tokyo and Seoul normalized relations in 1965. The assistance is to be provided after the countries agree to normalize relations, a process that Japan now links to a resolution of the nuclear issue. Reportedly, Japanese officials are discussing a package on the order of $5-$10 billion, an enormous sum for the North Korean economy, the total GDP of which is estimated to be in the $20 billion range. Currently, Japan is a significant source of North Korea's foreign exchange, by virtue of the large Japanese market for the North Korean government's suspected drug-running operations, and of remittances from Korean permanent residents in Japan. Japan is North Korea's third-largest trading partner.

Since the fall of 2002, Japan has been the Northeast Asian country most supportive of the Bush Administration's policy of pressuring North Korea to abandon its nuclear program, and has taken a number of steps to curtail North Korea's ability to earn hard currency and to import dual-use technology. Since North Korea launched a long-range missile over Japan in 1998, relations with North Korea have been a highly politicized issue inside Japan, creating strong domestic support for taking a hard line against Pyongyang. Prime Minister Koizumi, however, has equivocated on taking more coercive measures against North Korea, such as economic sanctions, absent an escalation of the situation by Pyongyang. Japan fears such measures could provoke a military response by North Korea and/or trigger a surge in refugees.

This report will be updated periodically to track developments in Japan-North Korea relations.