According to Bloomberg:
Japan’s government will lift some of its sanctions on North Korea after the nation led by Kim Jong Il agreed to begin a new investigation into the abduction of Japanese citizens.
Japan agreed to lift the sanctions after officials met with their North Korean counterparts in Beijing, Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said today. Japan will end travel restrictions and allow North Korean ships to load humanitarian cargo at its ports, he said.
“We see this as a certain degree of progress,” Machimura said. “But this does not change Japan’s position that it won’t participate in sending humanitarian aid to North Korea at this point.”
“The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea will reinvestigate the abduction issue,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency cited a government press release as saying in a statement today. The June 11-12 talks between Japan and North Korea were held “to redeem the inglorious past and normalize the relations between them,” KCNA said.
Japan stopped all trade and exports with North Korea in October 2006 after the country detonated a nuclear device. Japan last renewed sanctions, which it reviews every six months, in April.
Although both sides made very minor concessions, this move gives them greater political space in which to operate in the future.
Read the full article here:
Japan to Lift Some Trade Sanctions on North Korea
Bloomberg
Toko Sekiguchi and Keiichi Yamamura
6/13/2008
