Word: japanned
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...hermit state to abandon its nuclear weapons program. In recent months, those nations - including the U.S., Russia, China and South Korea - have made some significant strides, including agreements from Pyongyang to shut down its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon and to disclose its nuclear activities. But for Japan, the sixth party to the talks, these diplomatic successes are threatening another of its most tenaciously held foreign policy goals: discovering the fate of 17 Japanese civilians abducted by the North between...
...citizens were returned to the country after being kidnapped and forced to instruct North Korean agents on Japanese culture and society; Pyongyang at the time said the rest were dead - a claim the victims' families dispute. Since then, the remaining abductees' fate has become a hot-button issue in Japan. "It's a heart-rendering story, and involves issues of sovereignty and human rights," notes Robert Dujarric, director of Temple University's Institute of Contemporary Japanese Studies. "The issue has taken on a life of its own." The government has called the kidnappings "acts of terrorism"; former Prime Minister Shinzo...
...Last week, at an international symposium titled "North Korean Human Rights Abuses Awareness Week," cohosted by the cabinet secretariat and the Foreign Affairs and Justice Ministries, specialists from Japan, South Korea and the U.S. met to confer on the abductee issue in the context of broader human rights violations in North Korea. Their view was clear: "We will not have satisfaction on denuclearization, human rights or the abductees until the [North Korean] regime is gone," says panelist Michael Green, senior adviser and Japan chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies based in Washington...
...More importantly, with the exception of a confused statement from Japan, not one of the allies that had generally stood with the U.S. the past two weeks - Australia, Russia, Canada - rose in its defense. The near-total isolation of the U.S. on climate change - which had been building since its rejection of the Kyoto Protocol nearly a decade ago - was now obvious, apparently even to the U.S. Dobiansky turned to speak. "We've listened very closely to many of our colleagues here during these two weeks, but especially to what has been said in this hall today," she said...
...Despite the scientific work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change highlighting the urgency of deep and rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, the U.S. - along with Japan, Australia and Canada - has resolutely opposed a European push for the Bali delegates to discuss targeted emissions cuts. That opposition isn't surprising, because the Bush Administration has never hidden its opposition to mandatory cuts. But observers here say the U.S. obstructive role has been more egregious, stymieing attempts to craft meaningful action on everything from deforestation to measures to help developing nations manage their carbon output. "The U.S. has been fingered...