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Disarmament DocumentationBack to Disarmament Documentation Japan Foreign Ministry on North Korea, September 4, 2007Press Conference, Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, September 4, 2007. Deputy Press Secretary Tomohiko Taniguchi IX. Questions concerning North Korea Q: One more thing, on the US-North Korea meeting. I am not very clear whether the US and North Korea actually agreed that the US de-list North Korea as a terrorist-supporting state. Mr. Taniguchi: What US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill has been telling us on the Japanese side is that he and his colleagues on the US side are not interested at all in jeopardizing the US-Japan relationship and we have heard nothing that the US actually agreed on de-listing North Korea from the terrorists list. Q: So, it is a wrong report that North Korea -- ? Mr. Taniguchi: We are aware that North Korea is making that claim but what I am saying is that we have heard nothing from the US side to confirm it. Q: How does Japan feel about this situation? Mr. Taniguchi: Firstly, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, our ambassador is going to attend a Japan-North Korea bilateral meeting in Ulan Bator, Mongolia. We are expecting a positive outcome will emerge after the bilateral and we are watching closely what North Korea is going to say on many issues of our concern ranging from the abduction issue to the nuclear issue and so on. Q: Is Japan going to raise this issue of the terrorist state de-listing? Mr. Taniguchi: The first priority, of course, is that North Korea must come out with detailed and concrete information about the abductees. The rest of the decisions from the Japanese Government's side are going to be made in accordance with what the North Korean Government is actually going to say to us. Source: Japan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, http://www.mofa.go.jp/ © 2007 The Acronym Institute. |