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Friday June 16, 1:30 PM2ND LD: Diet enacts N. Korea sanctions law(Kyodo) _ (EDS: UPDATING, ADDING COMMENTS AT 5TH-7TH, 12TH GRAFS)Japan's parliament enacted a bill into law Friday that requires the government to impose economic sanctions on North Korea if Pyongyang fails to make progress in addressing its human rights situation, notably the abduction of Japanese nationals. With the enactment, the government aims to realize the early return of Japanese nationals abducted by North Korean agents from the late 1970s to the early 1980s and promote international cooperation in resolving the issue. The bill cleared the legislature at a plenary session of the House of Councillors, with support from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, its junior coalition partner, the New Komeito party, and the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan. It was approved by the House of Representatives on Tuesday. The law is the third in a series of measures to press North Korea on the abduction issue, following a law to take financial actions through the revised Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law and a law to ban port calls by North Korean vessels. Leaders of a group of relatives of abduction victims welcomed the legislation as a step toward rescue of their loved ones and urged the government to take advantage of it. "The problem is how to make use of this law," Shigeru Yokota, 73, whose daughter Megumi was abducted in 1977 at age 13, told a press conference at a lawmakers' office building. "I want the government to deal sternly with North Korea in line with the law's objectives." His wife, Sakie, 70, said, "I'm very pleased. Let's just hope that it will have an effect and lead to an early resolution of the abduction issue." The law, proposed by lawmakers, defines the resolution of the abduction issue as a duty for the government of Japan and calls for it to conduct thorough investigations into the issue and do whatever it can to realize the return of Japanese abductees. It obligates the government to take "necessary measures" such as imposing financial sanctions under the foreign exchange law if no improvement is seen in North Korea's human rights situation, supporting North Koreans who fled the country and supplying information and financial support to nongovernmental organizations helping those defectors. But the government is given discretionary power in invoking economic sanctions against the North after considering the international situation "in a comprehensive way." The new law also designates Dec. 10-16 as campaign week on North Korea's human rights abuses and calls for the central and local governments to organize activities. A group supporting the abduction victims and their families plans to organize a rally in Tokyo during the week and ask victims' relatives and government organs of Japan, South Korea and 10 other countries to take part in it, its leader Katsumi Sato said. The law also requires the Japanese government to submit an annual report to the Diet on its actions over North Korea's human rights' abuses and to make the report public. The lawmakers combined a bill drafted by the LDP and the New Komeito party with a similar one drafted by the DPJ, which included provisions that Japan support North Korean defectors and their support organizations. The combined bill was proposed Monday by the chair of the lower house special committee on the abduction issue. North Korea admitted in 2002 that it abducted 13 Japanese nationals in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and allowed five of them to return to Japan. But it maintains that the other eight, including Megumi Yokota have died -- a claim disputed by the Japanese government and the relatives of the eight. Japan's National Police Agency has so far recognized 16 Japanese, including the 13, as having been abducted to North Korea. |
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