RIGHT-WING VISIT TO DPRK CITED AS SIGN OF WARMING

C O N F I D E N T I A L TOKYO 002281

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/18/2018
TAGS: PREL PHUM PGOV JA KN
SUBJECT: RIGHT-WING VISIT TO DPRK CITED AS SIGN OF WARMING
TREND

Classified By: Ambassador J. Thomas Schieffer, reasons 1.4(b),(d).


1. (C) Summary: Just prior to Japan's talks with the DPRK in
June, North Korea granted permission for representatives of a
Japanese right-wing group to make an unusual - perhaps
unprecedented - visit to the DPRK for discussions on
collecting and repatriating the remains of Japanese veterans
from Japan's colonial occupation period. Although the visit
yielded no concrete benefits, at least one senior ruling
party politician and promoter of closer Japan-DPRK ties told
the Embassy he viewed the visit as an indication of North
Korea's willingness to engage with Japan. End Summary.


2. (C) In an unusual and not very widely publicized visit,
representatives of the Japanese right-wing group Issuikai
("One Water Association") -- founder Kunio Suzuki and
chairman Mitsuhiro Kimura -- traveled to the DPRK from April
24 to April 29. The purpose of the visit, according to Keio
University Professor Setsu Kobayashi, was to collect and
repatriate to Japan the remains of Japanese soldiers who
perished in the northern half of the Korean Peninsula during
Japan's colonial occupation. (Note: Kobayashi was one of
Kimura's professors at Keio.) Members of right-wing groups
in Japan consider it an important duty to collect and
repatriate the remains of Japan's fallen veterans, Kobayashi
told the Embassy. Failing that, he elaborated, they seek to
clean the graves of fallen soldiers, console their souls, and
build monuments.


3. (C) During their five-night stay in the DPRK, Professor
Kobayashi noted, Kimura and Suzuki were escorted at all times
by purported "family members" of Kim Jong-il." For the first
half of their trip, they stayed at a hotel in Pyongyang; for
the remainder, they stayed outside Pyongyang at a guest house
with a hot-spring. All meals and drinks were provided gratis
by the DPRK.


5. (C) Each time Kimura and Suzuki broached the matter of
collecting the remains of Japanese veterans, the North
Koreans responded by raising the abduction issue. "Why is
Japan unable to understand the sincerity of the DPRK," their
interlocutors reportedly asked. "Kim Jong-il has apologized
for the abductions and provided everything he can provide.
The Japanese are liars for maintaining that the DPRK is
holding back information and abductees," they added. "You
don't understand the Japanese public's mind," Kimura is said
to have responded. "Living in an informed society, the
Japanese don't believe the DPRK has provided all it knows
about this issue." Kimura urged his North Korean hosts to
allow Japanese police and government officials, as well as
abductee family members, into the DPRK to conduct their own
investigations.


6. (C) Kimura "strongly sensed the DPRK's wariness of China"
throughout his conversations with the North Koreans,
Professor Kobayashi reported, and expressed his personal
concern that the DPRK "may come under the control of the
Chinese." In spite of his nationalist and anti-DPRK
credentials, Kobayashi asserted, Kimura believes that close
relations between Japan and the DPRK will help keep the
"Chinese threat to Japan" at bay.


3. (C) Senior ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) lawmaker
Koichi Kato, who meets occasionally with Suzuki, told Embassy
Tokyo that Suzuki had unsuccessfully applied over 20 times
for a tourist visa to the DPRK. Kato didn't know why the
DPRK had accepted his application this time, but believed it
was a positive sign of the DPRK's willingness to engage with
Japan. When five Japanese abductees were allowed to
accompany then-Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi back to Japan
in 2002, Kato pointed out, Suzuki wrote several op-ed pieces
urging Japan to return the abductees to North Korea as
promised, arguing that it would be shameful for Japan to be
called a "liar," by the DPRK. Kato, himself a vocal promoter
of closer Japan-DPRK ties, caused a stir recently when he
publicly suggested that Japan would not be facing its current
difficulties in addressing the abductee issue with the DPRK
if it had returned the abductees as promised.
SCHIEFFER