North Korea has claimed that its cold war abductions of Japanese citizens has been “resolved” and accused Japan of trying to wreck recent progress towards the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula.
The state-run KCNA news agency blasted Japan’s insistence that it will not normalise diplomatic ties with North Korea until it has settled the abductions of at least a dozen of its citizens in the 1970s and 80s.
“The reactionaries of Japan are hyping the ‘issue of abduction’, which had already been settled,” KCNA said. “This is just a mean and foolish behaviour to stem the trend of peace on the Korean peninsula at any cost although it is unanimously hailed by the international community.”
It added: “While the entire world actively supports and welcomes the upcoming North Korea-US summit as a step toward a bright future for the Korean peninsula, only Japan is moving against this trend.”
Pyongyang allowed five of the abductees, who were used to teach their language and culture to North Korean agents, to return to Japan with their families in 2002, but insists that eight others died and that that the remaining four never entered the country.
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