Show Japanese Decry N. N Koreas Korea's Removal From Terror List Blaine Harden The Washington n Post PostA PostA A A. day after the Bush administration removed North Korea from its terrorism blacklist the country announced Sunday that it would resume tearing down its main nuclear plant and South Korea welcomed the move as a astep astep astep step toward ending its next- next door neighbors neighbor's nuclear program But in nearby Japan where North Koreas Korea's kidnapping of Japanese citizens is a festering national sore that politicians dare not neglect the decision to take the country off the blacklist was condemned by family members of the These relatives are well- well known knO and much-honored much L' L in m japan anu ana incur opinions have been a powerful force in crafting Japans Japan's hard- hard nosed policy toward North Korean leader Kim Jong III III II 11 I think it is an act of betrayal said Teruaki Masumoto a brother of one of the eight Japanese who were stolen away byNorth by byNorth byNorth North Korean agents in the and and who the government says are still alive in North Korea Masumoto is secretary general of the Association of the Families of Victims Kidnapped by y North Korea Why did the United States remove North Korea from the list when it is clear to anyone's eyes that the North is a terrorism- terrorism assisting country asked Sakie 72 whose daughter Megumi was 13 when she was kidnapped nearly 31 years ago and is by far the most famous of the Struggling to explain the emotional resonance of the issue for the Japanese people a Foreign Ministry official in Tok Tokyo o earlier this year compared Megumi to Alexander the late Nobel Prize- Prize winning novelist who made the world aware of the network of Soviet prisons known as the gulag For more than 18 months as the Bush administration has made a seismic shift from prickly denunciation of North Korea toward flexible diplomacy the Japanese government has been worried that its interests in getting information about the would be shunted aside as the United States single-mindedly single pursued North Korea has infuriated Japan in recent by saying that all years t t t t y me are ate u tl supplied death documents that the Japanese government said are forgeries Japanese officials say DNA tests have shown that cremated bones sent to Japan from North Korea were not the remains of the How can you trust a government that sends you phony bones a government official in Tokyo said last year According to the Japanese government Bush said I understand the Japanese people have strong concerns and anxiety over the abduction issue I would like to convey my deep sympathy to the families of the Aso reportedly replied I would like to closely cooperate towards resol resolving ving the abduction issue But Japanese officials have said privately that critical leverage on North Korea has been lost with its removal from the terrorism list |