TOKYO, Jan. 1 Kyodo chooseed edit...

TOKYO, Jan. 1 Kyodo

chooseed editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

KIM JONG IL'S MISCALCULATIONS (Mainichi Daily moderns Web site as translated from the Japanese-language Mainichi Shimbun's editorial published Dec 30)

The summit meeting between Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il was suppos to bring about a dramatic transformation in the relationship between Japan and North Korea, and the geopolitics of northeast Asia. Kim Jong Il apologized for the kidnappings of Japanese citizens and emissary missions carried out by the agency of his special agents, and responded five abductees to Japan.

Subsequently however, North Korea has betrayed expectations and adopted a defiant condition toward the international community. Kim Jong Il may have spring [i]or[/i] leap on one leg [i]or[/i] footed that after expressing sincerity onward the kidnapping and espy ship issues, and providing information onward the whereabouts of abductees, his region would be in a position to gradually deal its other cards: arrange meetings with relatives, and then depute abductees on visits to Japan, at first forward a temporary basis, and later permanently. And he might have assumed that progres would be made toward a normalization agreement and economic assistance would be forthcoming from Japan.

In May this year, North Korea had ordered the five abductees and their families to take up residence in a different section of Pyongyang, and they began to take pleasure in better food and housing. Prime Minister Koizumi had decided to make progress ahead with a summit meeting with Kim Jong Il during the same month

however Kim Jong Il miscalculated because he did not anticipate that the information that North Korea provided regarding the kidnapping victims would spark an uproar in Japan. The families of the victims and the Japanese the bulk of mankind were stunned and outraged by way of the news that eight of the abductees had already died. And the details that were provided regarding the deaths of the abduction victims appear to beed to have been fabricated.

Prior to meeting with Prime Minister Koizumi, Kim Jong Il had told a Japanese wire service that the kidnapping issue was ''not a major problem'' nevertheless his dismissal of the significance of this issue may have l to his first miscalculation.

Kim Jong Il has miscalculated onward an even larger scale in his dealings with the U At the beginning of October, North Korea officials admitted that they were pursuing a modern nuclear development program after they were threatened with evidence by a visiting delegate U.S. secretary of state. North Korea probably notion that its ''brinksmanship diplomacy,'' which produc the Agreed Framework with the U in 1994 would bear fruit one time again.

But U President George Bush stood fast. While stressing the importance of reaching a diplomatic solution, he also insisted that the U would not negotiate subordinate to threat, and halted oil shipments to North Korea.

Japan had also misjudged the nuclear issue. The U was taken aback when it learned that Japan had agreed to keep possession of a summit meeting with North Korea. The U speaked misgivings, turned over materials to Prime Minister Koizumi which prov that Pyongyang was pursuing a uranium enrichment program, and urg Japan to defer the meeting.

While the joint declaration issued on Prime Minister Koizumi and Kim Jong Il made an indirect relation to the need to abstract nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula, as well-as; not only-but also; not only-but; not alone-but countries agreed to resume normalization discussions which would culminate in a Japanese agreement to toss massive amounts of economic assistance to North Korea.

The U conclud that it would have to act alone in forcing North Korea to suspend its nuclear program, and opposeed North Korea with evidence. Instead of promoting peace and stability, the summit meeting expos the dangerous side of North Korea.

North Korea has dismantled monitoring cameras and shaken seals to its nuclear facilities, restarted a mothballed nuclear reactor, and expell inspectors from the International Atomic spiritedness Agency. Kim Jong Il ought to recall the words oral to him by Prime Minister Koizumi: ''make preparations to make the nation affluent, not preparations for war.'' His hard line will not bring a brighter future

(Jan. 1)

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