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TOKYO: North Korea will delay a probe into abductions of Japanese civilians due to the change of government in Tokyo, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said Friday.
"This is very disappointing," Komura told reporters.
North Korea had agreed in June to start a new investigation into the fate of Japanese abducted in the 1970s and 1980s to train its spies, a longstanding demand of Tokyo which has pressed the issue in six-nation disarmament talks.
The delay comes just after North Korea announced it would stop work on disabling its nuclear complex in protest at a US delay in taking North Korea off a list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Japan has pressed the United States not to remove North Korea from the list without progress in the abduction row, which strikes a powerful emotional chord in Japan.
North Korea told Japan through diplomatic channels in Beijing on Thursday that it would not move ahead until it sees who replaces Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, a moderate who supports reconciliation with Pyongyang, Komura said.
Under the June deal, North Korea agreed to let in Japanese investigators with a goal of winding up the probe in autumn. In turn, Fukuda's government said it would relax some sanctions against the impoverished state.
Fukuda suddenly quit on Monday after months of low approval ratings.
"We were informed by North Korea that they maintain the position that they will carry out the agreement" to reinvestigate the abductions, Komura said.
"However, North Korea said it will refrain from the launching its reinvestigation committee until finding out the position of Japan's new government," he said.
Taro Aso, the front-runner to become the new prime minister, is widely seen as more hardline on diplomacy than Fukuda.
North Korea gave no concessions to Japan during the tenure of Fukuda's predecessor Shinzo Abe, an outspoken conservative who had built his career campaigning for tough action on North Korea.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura, the government's spokesman, said Japan would press North Korea to launch the probe.
“Regardless of the change of the government, this is an important diplomatic issue and the resumption of the probe is aimed at achieving the return of abductees who are still alive as soon as possible," Machimura said.
- AFP/yb
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