As an update to a previous posting about a a North Korean family defecting and being picked up in a Japanese port , I came across an article about the Prime Minister's latest statement.
The issue concerning Japan and defectors is serious because of its implication on the relationship between the two countries. Because of the shaky past, Prime Minister Abe must be careful not to push Pyongyang too far, especially with their latest missile tests. Abe has stated that a "humanitarian approach" would be taken. This could be viewed as an attempt to take the moral highground, and I'm sure that the North Korean government is outraged. It has been ecided that the family will be allowed to travel to South Korea with a "temporal protection landing permit" from Japan.
It is also interesting to note the differences between China and Japan's defector policies, because as Christina mentioned, the Chinese have sent defectors back, recognizing them as criminals.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I was reading about the defectors, too, and found this story about the lengths that some are willing to go to leave the oppression in North Korea. People are risking their lives to escape in boats over hundreds of miles of sea.
(sorry about the URL...)
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200706040059.html
this is really interesting because I did not know how that much about countries policy on defectors. On the research that I did, it stated that China sent back defectors because of a treaty they had. I find it really interesting that Japan is allowing this family to travel to Japan. I read somewhere that the US has a plan for North Korean defectors, but I don't know how accurate that is.
I just find it interesting that everybody involved with defectors are so concerned with North Korea's opinion because they don't want nuclear missiles going off. This I believe results in at times contradicting messages because they want to help, but they don't want to start anything.
Post a Comment