U.S. delinks JAL hijackers, North Korea terror status

WASHINGTON (Kyodo) The United States does not see North Korea's deportation of Japanese radicals who hijacked a Japan Airlines jet to the reclusive state in 1970 as a prerequisite for removing the North from a U.S. list of terrorism-sponsoring nations, a senior State Department official indicated Wednesday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, also signaled willingness to take the North off the blacklist by the year's end once Pyongyang disables its three nuclear facilities in Yongbyon and fully declares its nuclear programs under a six-party deal.

On the issue of whether Pyongyang should deport the hijackers, the official said, "I think that is something that Japan and the DPRK have to sort out among themselves." DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea's official name.

Of the nine Red Army Faction members who hijacked the JAL plane to North Korea, four are still in North Korea and the others have either died or been arrested upon returning to Japan.

Japan has been calling for their unconditional handover.

North Korea has said it is not opposed to the hijackers' return home but supports the hijackers' request to hold talks with the Japanese government first. Tokyo has rejected that request, saying it will not negotiate with the hijackers.

As for the North's terrorism-sponsor status, the official played down effects on the resolution of the issue of Pyongyang's abduction of Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s even if Washington does delist the country.

"I don't really think that you can say that we are going to lose leverage with the DPRK on this specific issue," the official said. "The further along we move, I think that it raises the stakes for everyone. . . . The greater the stakes and the greater the pressure on the DPRK."

Washington put North Korea on the list in January 1988 after its agents blew up a South Korean jetliner in midflight the preceding year. The Korean Air Lines jet crashed into the Indian Ocean, killing all 115 people on board.

Two Pyongyang agents posing as Japanese blew up the jetliner. One committed suicide after they were seized between flights in the Middle East, and the other was taken to South Korea, where she said she was tutored by one of the Japanese abductees on how to assume her identity.

In a six-way statement released Oct. 3, the U.S. reaffirmed its commitment to beginning the process of removing North Korea from the list as Pyongyang moves ahead with its denuclearization obligations.

"Provided that there is progress on that front, then we've always been very clear that we will keep our commitment to initiate those steps," the official said.

Japan, one of the nations involved in the six-party talks, has urged the U.S. not to remove the North from the list until progress is made on the abduction issue.

The U.S. has explored the timing of a presidential notification to Congress of taking the North off the terrorism sponsor list, in consideration of the progress made on Pyongyang's disabling and declaring its nuclear programs.

The disablement of North Korea's three nuclear facilities in Yongbyon began in early November as the second phase of the denuclearization-for-aid deal reached by the six parties in February.

"The point is that there is that agreement and that as long as the DPRK proceeds in that fashion, then we intend to honor our commitments," the official said.

States named on the U.S. list are subject to sanctions, including a ban on arms-related sales to the country. Removal from the list could pave the way for Pyongyang to gain access to aid from international financial institutions such as the World Bank.

Due to the abduction issue, Japan and North Korea have yet to see a breakthrough in their working-group talks on normalizing ties. Japan wants the North to reopen investigations on 12 of the 17 abductees on Japan's official list — all except the five who returned to Japan in 2002. Pyongyang says the issue is resolved because no more Japanese abductees remain alive in the hermit state.