DPRK: PM'S ABDUCTIONS ADVISOR TAKES HEART FROM

C O N F I D E N T I A L TOKYO 002883 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/16/2018 TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM KN JA SUBJECT: DPRK: PM'S ABDUCTIONS ADVISOR TAKES HEART FROM ONGOING SANCTIONS Classified By: Ambassador J. Thomas Schieffer per 1.4 (b/d) ¶1. (C) Summary: Meeting with Embassy Tokyo October 14, Prime Minister Aso's Special Advisor on the Abductions Issue Kyoko Nakayama expressed relief that, although the United States lifted the DPRK's terror designation, ongoing sanctions will continue to require the United States to vote against IMF and other international financial institutions' support for the North. To resolve the abductions issue, Japan only has economic and financial leverage, and she had feared that removing the DPRK from the terror list would weaken this leverage by opening the door to greater international support for Pyongyang, she explained. End Summary. ¶2. (C) Kyoko Nakayama, the Prime Minister's Special Advisor on the Abductions Issue, opened her October 14 meeting with Embassy Tokyo Political Minister Counselor Michael Meserve and Political Section Deputy Marc Knapper by expressing her government's thanks for the special role the Ambassador Schieffer has played in seeking to resolve the abductions issue. (Note: Nakayama has had the lead on the abductions issue since the Abe administration and served briefly as Abductions Minister during the Fukuda administration. End Note.) Now that the United States has removed the DPRK from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, Japan, the United States and others need to continue work hard to resolve the issues before us, including denuclearization and abductions. However, "because North Korea is not a normal country, we must take care not to make deals based on the assumption that it is like other countries," Nakayama said. Meserve assured Nakayama that the United States has no illusions about North Korea, which was why it is important to keep them in the Six Party process, where progress could be made on denuclearization and abductions. ¶3. (C) Meserve stressed that we will work with our Six Party partners to ensure that the final verification protocol will be acceptable. Meserve passed Special Advisor Nakayama English- and Japanese-language versions of the fact sheet on delisting, summary of U.S. sanctions on the DPRK, and the press release on delisting. Meserve called Nakayama's attention to the statement that the U.S.-DPRK agreed upon measures "will serve as a baseline for a Verification Protocol to be finalized and adopted by the Six Parties," emphasizing that Japan will have a key role in moving the process forward. He further noted that, while the terror designation has been lifted, there are a number of ongoing sanctions on the DPRK. ¶4. (C) Studying the Department's DPRK Sanctions Fact Sheet, Nakayama expressed relief that the Gramm Amendment, for example, will continue to require the United States to vote against IMF and other international financial institutions' support for the North. "To resolve the abductions issue, Japan only has economic and financial leverage...we would lose this should international sources of financial support become available to Pyongyang," she explained. ¶5. (C) Praising MOFA Asia DG Saiki for his "hard work" in reaching an agreement with the DPRK to restart the abductions investigation, Nakayama lamented that there has yet to be any movement. Initially, the DPRK had thought that merely agreeing to restart the investigation would be enough to win a partial lifting of Japan's sanctions. However, "because we cannot trust them," Saiki pushed hard and made the deal in which the actual start of the reinvestigation would be the trigger for Japan to partially lift sanctions, she explained. ¶6. (C) Comment: Nakayama, accompanied by Cabinet Secretariat Counselors Takashi Minami and Takahiro Yoshinaga, was obviously pleased to receive the list of U.S. sanctions that apply to the DPRK. A hard-liner on North Korea and abductions, she went out of her way to praise the United States and Ambassador Schieffer for continuing to press on abductions. SCHIEFFER