Abe hails US redesignation of North Korea as terror sponsor

November 21, 2017

TOKYO- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday praised the United States' decision to put North Korea back on its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

"I welcome and support the US move, which is designed to strengthen pressure on North Korea," Abe told reporters at the prime minister's office.

Citing the possibility of North Korea carrying out fresh provocative actions, Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera told a press conference on Tuesday that the government remains ready to "firmly respond with a sense of tension."

It is "important to strengthen surveillance" against North Korean actions, he added.

US President Donald Trump announced on Monday his administration's decision to bring North Korea back to the terror sponsor list, following the reclusive nation's recent nuclear and ballistic missile provocations.

Pyongyang was removed from the US list in 2008 due to progress in the six-party talks aimed at dismantling its nuclear program.

Meanwhile,.families of Japanese nationals abducted to the reclusive nation decades ago have expressed hopes that the US move will lead to the victims' return home.

Shigeo Iizuka, 79, elder brother of abductee Yaeko Taguchi, then 22, welcomed the US decision as "what we have expected."

"I hope the move will produce concrete effects," said Iizuka, who leads a group of the victims' families. The resident of Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, also called on the Japanese government to work proactively to realize the victims' return.

"North Korea will hopefully change its policy," said Kenichi Ichikawa, 72, whose younger brother, Shuichi, was kidnapped at the age of 23. "As they don't sit for talks, we have no choice but to pressure them," said Ichikawa, who lives in Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan.

"The families are frustrated" because little progress has been made on the abduction issue, Ichikawa stressed, urging Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to visit North Korea.

In September 2002, then Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited North Korea and held a historic summit with Kim Jong Il, then leader of the country. Five abductees returned to Japan the following month.

Fumiko Hirano, 67, elder sister of abductee Rumiko Masumoto, then 24, argued that it was a mistake that the United States canceled the listing of North Korea as a state terror sponsor in 2008. "I think the United States was deceived (by North Korea)," she said.

"Too much time has passed, and our mother has turned 90," Hirano, living in Kumamoto Prefecture, next to Kagoshima, said. "I want to realize a reunion (between the mother and the kidnapped daughter)," she said. Jiji Press