Editorials
Friday, May 16, 1997JAPAN has been noticeably reluctant to provide more food aid to famine-ravaged North Korea. The reason is that the Japanese people are outraged by disclosures of abductions of Japanese citizens by North Korea, implication of the Pyongyang regime in drug trafficking in Japan and the flow of hundreds of millions of dollars from Koreans in Japan to prop up the Communist government. Japan's outrage over North Korean actions
Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto has refused to provide more food aid until Japan gets answers about the alleged abductions. Hashimoto said it is fairly certain that North Korea was involved in the kidnappings of at least nine Japanese over the past two decades and is suspected in 10 others.
The apparent motive for the kidnappings was to enable North Korean agents to assume the victims' identities in Japan. A confessed North Korean spy disclosed that North Korean agents were trained in Japan and then infiltrated into South Korea, including the assassin who killed the wife of President Park Chung-hee in 1974. The disclosures have also aroused concern about the fate of 1,800 Japanese women who emigrated to North Korea, mostly between 1959 and 1961, and have not come home since.
Last month about 150 pounds of amphetamines were found aboard a North Korean ship that docked at Kyushu Island, hidden in cans labeled as honey. Two North Korean residents of Japan were arrested trying to pick up the cargo. One of them had been an executive in a credit union believed to have funneled money to Pyongyang.
Now that the government has admitted that it knew about the abductions, people want to know why officials did not do something about them. Families of the victims have teamed up with legislators to demand a full investigation. In this atmosphere, Hashimoto would only inflame the situation further by sending food aid to North Korea.
The disclosures reveal Japan's obsequious policy of turning a blind eye to North Korea's behavior. Japan has long followed a remarkably lenient policy toward North Korea, imposing no economic sanctions on Pyongyang and allowing Korean residents of Japan to travel freely and send money to relatives in the North. But that policy of appeasement may now change in the face of the fury of the Japanese voters. Certainly North Korea has provided ample provocation.
THE North Atlantic Treaty Organization, born of the need to shield Western Europe from Soviet aggression, has undergone a metamorphosis since the collapse of the U.S.S.R. As President Clinton explained it, NATO's new mission is not to threaten or contain Russia, "but instead to build a common partnership for democratic values and democratic interests." Agreement on NATO
No one has told the American people why they should commit their sons and daughters to the defense of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic - or for that matter Britain or France - now that the Cold War is over. The reason that hasn't been explained is that the advocates of NATO expansion know the voters wouldn't buy it.
A husband and wife withdrew a $3 million donation to the children's zoo in New York's Central Park because they considered the commemorative plaque for their gift was too small. The plaque approved by the city art commission for the gift of Edith and Henry Everett had two-inch-high letters. Displeased donors
The beneficiaries should try to satisfy the donors' requests if they are reasonable. Can the art commission replace the lost $3 million?
Rupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
