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Japan angry at U.S. deal with North Korea
Taiwan News.Net
Sunday 12th October, 2008
Japan has expressed extreme regret and anger at a decision by the United States to remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Formally a member of U.S. President George W. Bush's 'axis of evil,' North Korea was removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism on Saturday.
The term 'axis of evil' was coined by President Bush in his State of the Union Address on January 29, 2002, when he named Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as sponsors of terrorism as part of his wider war on terror doctrine.
Japan's Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa has told Japanese reporters in Washinton DC that the abductions carried out by North Korea in Japan were 'terrorist acts.'
Mr Nakagawa is in Washington for the G-7 talks.
Japan believes North Korea should be kept on the state sponsors of terrorism list because of the abductions it engaged in throughout the 1970s and 1980s, for which there has been no accounting.
Later in a press briefing in Washington Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for Public Affairs Sean McCormack told reporters, 'We strongly urge North Korea to address Japan’s concerns without further delay. The United States wholeheartedly supports Japan’s position on the abduction issue. We have not forgotten and will never forget the suffering of the abductees and their families.'
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