Word: abely
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When North Korea exploded its nuclear device at 10:36 a.m. on Oct. 9, Shinzo Abe's plane was en route from Beijing to Seoul for a summit with South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun. Upon landing, the new Japanese Prime Minister hurriedly gathered his staff at their Seoul hotel to devise Japan's response to the test. Some aides suggested canceling the summit and returning home to Tokyo immediately. Abe refused. "He was very clear that we weren't going to show that we were confused or anxious," says Hiroshige Seko, a special adviser to the Prime Minister...
...administration that is less than a month old, North Korea's nuclear shocker posed a difficult trial by fire. But Abe?at 52, Japan's youngest postwar Prime Minister?has aced his debut on the world stage, showing decisiveness and deft diplomacy that have heartened his supporters and confounded his critics. Not only has the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) leader demonstrated his willingness to play hardball with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, he has also displayed a conciliatory side during fence-mending visits to China and South Korea aimed at easing strained relations between Japan and its neighbors. Abe...
...Abe scored with the Japanese public by quickly meting out tough economic punishment to North Korea, banning its imports and barring its ships from Japanese ports, ahead of sweeping sanctions imposed by the United Nations Security Council last week. In addition, to counteract fears that Pyongyang's nuclear capabilities could touch off a regional arms race, Abe made it clear that Japan had no intention of developing nuclear weapons?thus drawing Japan closer to its key ally and military protector, the U.S., while reassuring China that North Asia's balance of power was unchanged...
...Lashing out at Kim's pariah regime was a relatively easy call for Abe, who has profited by using Pyongyang as a punching bag before. The Prime Minister might still be an ordinary Diet member if he hadn't raised his profile by becoming a vocal advocate for Japanese abducted by Pyongyang?an emotive issue in Japan after North Korea admitted to the kidnappings in 2002. Kim's bomb test was another political gift of sorts. "We are convinced that Kim could be a supporter of Abe," says a half-joking Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi, the shadow foreign minister for the opposition...
...exist, could not exist, and would not exist if it weren’t for the fact that America needs it now, more than ever. Key TRAILER TRASH Awful. CELLULOID GOLD Awesome! Warning: quality of trailer does not necessarily denote quality of film. —Staff writer Abe J. Riesman can be reached at riesman@fas.harvard.edu...