2 Years to Go: Japan Nervous about N. Korean Role in Tokyo Games

July 27, 2018

Tokyo- The Japanese government is unsure about whether to allow a North Korean delegation to attend the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020, given no clear prospects for a solution to the decades-old abduction issue.

Some call for a political decision to permit entry for the sake of a successful Olympics and a mood of reconciliation in East Asia, but a lack of progress in efforts to bring home Japanese abduction victims may touch off a public backlash.

With uncertainties over how relations between Japan and North Korea will develop in the coming two years, the government faces a tough call.

During talks with visiting International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach in Pyongyang in March, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said his country will certainly participate in the Tokyo Olympics.

Bach has since expressed eagerness for the Tokyo Games to be a celebration of reconciliation, proposing joint marching by North and South Korean delegations.

As part of its sanction program against North Korea over the abduction and other issues, Japan has since October 2006 refused entry by people of North Korean nationality in principle.

In past sporting events held in Japan, the question of whether to offer exceptional treatment for North Korean athletes has often been a source of contention.

When Japan hosted the women's East Asian Football Championship in Tokyo in February 2010, members of the cabinet of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama were divided over whether to allow the arrival of the North Korean soccer team.

The government ended up granting an exception to the entry ban, but families of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents decades ago expressed concern over the decision, saying Japan should maintain a resolute attitude.

Japan has since admitted entry by North Korean athletes for sporting events, stressing that politics and sports should be in different spheres. Such events included soccer World Cup qualifiers in 2011, the 2014 World Team Table Tennis Championships, the 2016 Olympic women's soccer qualifying tournament and the 2017 Asian Winter Games.

But the Olympic Games are in a class of its own, with Japan's coming decision likely to be a focus of global attention.

Toshiaki Endo, former minister for the Olympics, said refusing entry is inconceivable from the standpoint of the Olympic Charter, which rules out any discrimination on the grounds of national origin. His view was shared by some within the government and ruling bloc.

But Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has taken a tough stance on the abduction issue, asked Bach over the phone in April to pay attention to public sentiment in Japan.

A senior government official said it would be unacceptable for Japan to welcome the arrival of North Korean athletes without a resolution of the abduction issue.

Abe has expressed eagerness for an early settlement of the abduction issue not only due to the aging of abductee family members but also because he hopes to prevent the issue of the entry of North Korean athletes from being rekindled, a government source said.

The prime minister appears likely to face an uphill task, with North Korea indicating no clear readiness to discuss a solution to the abduction issue despite the historic meeting between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump in Singapore in June. Jiji Press