National News Koizumi announces visit to Pyongyang to ask for return of abductees' families

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Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced his visit to Pyongyang on May 22 for talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in an effort to secure the passage to Japan of eight family members of five repatriated abductees, Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiroyuki Hosoda said May 14.

Seven of the eight are offspring of the five abductees. The eighth is U.S. Army Sgt. Charles Robert Jenkins, the American husband of one of the five.

Hosoda said the prime minister's visit was also aimed at making headway on bilateral normalization talks between Japan and North Korea, which have been stalled since October 2002.

"Japan and North Korea will confirm their intention to implement the Pyongyang Declaration and aim at improving trust between Japan and North Korea," Hosoda said.

He was referring to the statement that stipulates a road map toward normalization, signed by Koizumi and Kim in Pyongyang on Sept. 17, 2002, when Koizumi made a one-day landmark visit to meet with Kim.

Meanwhile, the announcement of the visit came with the revelation that Koizumi did not pay his pension premiums for six years and 11 months, despite telling reporters earlier that he did not miss any payments.

Koizumi was not a member of the National Pension System for certain times and did not pay premiums during three separate periods between the 1960s and 1980s, according to Isao Iijima, Koizumi's secretary in charge of political affairs.

Iijima said that it was not illegal for the prime minister to miss payments during those times.

"I don't bear any political responsibility," Koizumi told reporters May 14, adding that he had no intention of stepping down as prime minister.

(The Japan Times)

小泉首相、突然の再訪朝発表