How’s that for brief? Less words than the Google main screen!

I wouldn’t call it Japan’s 9-11 (when I see Koizumi’s approval ratings at 90% I’ll say that — plus his “let’s all calm down now” rhetoric, he’s not “milking” this like he could). And I certanily agree that whatever problems there are in DPRK-Japan relations, they should be sorted out now, while they still have the chance. If normalization ever occurs, Japan will lose all bargaining power. Come to think of it, why are they even normalizing in the first place? This seems like utter lunacy to me.

Of course, you know my views on the topic: NUKE PYONGYANG. To be articulated in a future post.

1) I’m not on the ground in Japan, so I may be completely misreading things
2) Much of this is still rather inchoate, so I am aware of a number of
weaknesses and flaws because I haven’t had time to think this all out at
length. But hopefully it will get a discussion going.

Here it is:

Sometimes it is difficult to keep my emotions in check when it comes to the abductee issue. Partly this is because having lived so long in Japan, and having many close Japanese friends, I naturally empathize with them, occasionally to the extent of being almost apologetic. And partly it’s because it’s so damned difficult to sympathize with Pyongyang.

So, yesterday I read that North Korea has declared that the imposition of economic sanctions by Japan, currently favored by perhaps two-thirds of the public, would be considered an act of war. This is one of the aforementioned times when my emotions start to flare”¦

Trying to decide who “started it”Â? is an exercise in futility, but the most recent volley in the ongoing argument between the two countries was unambiguously fired by the North Koreans when they handed over what they claimed were the remains of Yokota Megumi two weeks ago.

There are a few possible explanations for their behavior that immediately come to mind. First, perhaps the North Koreans are not aware that DNA testing technology even exists, much less that it would be used on the remains. Or, maybe the North Koreans really don’t know with any certainty where Yokota-san’s remains are (ie. somewhere in a mass grave), and they were simply doing the best they could by handing over something. Finally, it could be that they intentionally handed over the remains of two unknowns hoping to prolong the resolution of the issue or for some other unfathomable and possibly pedestrian motive.

But whatever their reasoning, the effect has been that the Japanese are extremely upset in a way that is unusual because of its infrequency and degree. When the normally leftist Asahi Shimbun goes from publishing this:

It’s time to muffle the rightists’ street campaigns! This kind of lawlessness has got to stop now.

to publishing this (emphasis mine) on its editorial pages:

Kim Jong Il should realize how angry the Japanese are.

We have some questions for North Korean leader Kim Jong Il: What on earth are you up to? Are you really intent on honestly taking stock of the crime that your regime committed and on picking up the pieces? How long do you plan to play fast and loose with the family members of abductees and the Japanese public in general?

We are so stunned at this development that we cannot adequately express our indignation. But we can imagine how the hearts of the abducted people’s family members, who yet again have been completely fooled by North Korea, are churning with anger.

“¦that is an unmistakable indication that the Japanese are pissed.

I hope this doesn’t sound too hyperbolic, and I don’t think anyone reading this will take offense because it certainly isn’t an attempt to downplay a tragedy, but one might as well call this the “Japanese 9-11.”Â? I mean that in the sense that it is a national tragedy that, irrespective of the significance (or lack thereof) we may assign the abductions, to many Japanese, has deeply affected them in ways similar to what a lot of Americans were probably feeling after 9-11.

To anyone who thinks I’m exaggerating (and perhaps I am a little, but I’m trying to make a point), first let me say that I have actually heard this compared to 9-11 by Japanese, and if that’s not evidence enough, try pointing out to a Japanese on the street that this would be a good time to think about the Ianfu, whose 15 year struggle to gain reparations from the Japanese government was overturned in a three minute show trial by the Japanese supreme court a few weeks ago. (And as much as I love the Japanese, it’s hard to see the difference in human terms of these poor Korean women and Yokota-san’s family.) If Japan suddenly normalized relations with North Korea and Pyongyang said, “get over it. We already settled it,”Â? as Japan indeed has done repeatedly with South Korea and China, well, I think the point has been made. Let me be unequivocal about one thing ““ I am not justifying Pyongyang’s actions or saying that Japan deserved any of this. But, at a certain point, logic just goes out the window (consider W’s post-9-11 musing on “why they hate us”Â? and I think the parallel should be clear.).

But what I’m getting at is that the recent problems with North Korea really seem as though they might have the potential to reshape public perception of Japan’s own security needs. As Curzon notes, Japan is normally pacifist, but if there is a good deal of public support for sanctions, as there most certainly is, the government has a chance to play up the North Korea threat, possibly justifying recent defense posture changes.

Anyway, just some thoughts.

For example, from a paper in Science [Science, Vol 305, Issue 5691, 1696-1703 , 17 September 2004]
” North Korea’s homegrown civilian science, at least the portion that Science was allowed to glimpse, is mostly tied to areas of potential economic growth. A plant genetics lab has introduced a line of virus-resistant potatoes into commerce and is trying to transfer insect-resistant Bacillus thuringiensis genes into corn, rice, and oilseed rape. Chinese agricultural scientists have come to North Korea to collaborate on transgenic experiments, including field trials, says Kim Song Jun, director of the Branch of Cell and Gene Engineering. Another team is growing acacia shoots in tissue culture to clone the hardiest trees. “Many trees were cut down freely during the Korean War and after the war,” says Un Song Gun, chief of the institute’s tissue culture lab. “We’d like to reforest entire mountains” with both imported and native acacia varieties, he says.

Other efforts aim to improve public health. One team, for example, is cloning the gene for erythropoietin, a hormone that stimulates the body to make blood cells, with a goal of infusing the protein in anemic patients. So far they have succeeded in expressing the gene in Chinese hamster cells. Another group extracts tetrodotoxin from puffer fish for use as a drug to treat tuberculosis, a particular scourge in North Korea; plans are afoot to export the preparation to China and Vietnam. Malaria is another woe, with approximately 300,000 cases per year. And an untold number of children are malnourished. The Swedish diplomat puts it bluntly: “A very ordinary disease in the West will kill you here. If you’re malnourished and get the flu, you’re dead.”

That’s exactly what I was thinking. And at the same time, in the world’s only other remaining communist nation….