Japan May Set Deadline on North Korea
Sunday, December 12, 2004 Posted: 07:00 AM JST
Japan may set a deadline on North Korea to account fully for the fate of abductee Megumi Yokota Kyodo reports today. The report was based on Japanese government sources.
Earlier this week Japan lodged a protest after DNA tests confirmed that cremated remains which according to North Korea were Yokota's actually belonged to two other people. Japan asked North Korea to explain, but the North has not responded.
According to the article the Japanese will continue pushing this request and also consider further talks with North Korea in early 2005. If North Korea does not respond satisfactorily Japan may set a deadline by which the country must give a convincing answer. When the deadline is reached without such an answer Japan may consider economic sanctions. "Under such circumstances, Japan should send an ultimatum to North Korea," a Foreign Ministry source was quoted in the article.
Yesterday, Yokota's parents appealed for immediate economic sanctions on North Korea at a meeting in Yao, Osaka Prefecture: "Dialogue will get the abduction issue nowhere. Japan should immediately slap economic sanctions on Pyongyang."
Keywords: national_news
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