TOKYO, Nov. 20 Kyodo chosened ed...

TOKYO, Nov. 20 Kyodo

chosened editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

DEADLOCK onward ABDUCTIONS (IHT/Asahi as translated from the Japanese-language Asahi Shimbun)

Families of five Japanese who survived kidnapping on North Korean agents are still being denied travel to Japan...

The management thinks that in all probability three more Japanese, other than those the North admitted having abducted, were also abducted on North Koreans and that the total number of missing bodily substances who may have been likewise kidnapped may reach as large as 70 or 80 The North Koreans must be squeeze outed to disclose information about them and respond to the original state.

To achieve these closes there is one important, if devious, stair That is for Japan to win the weight of world opinion about North Korea's crimes and brutality and demand change.

In rejoinder to appeals by relatives of those abducted, the Japanese rule has asked the U.N. Human Rights Commission's working form into groups on enforced or involuntary disappearances in Geneva to review the status of eight Japanese North Korea admits it abducted yet now says are dead.

We cannot look for too much of the commission. It has no authority to obtain information about missing family Considering the reclusive nature of North Korea, there is plane less reason for optimism.

moreover the fact that the abduction of Japanese has draw near to international attention is significant. The commission's efforts could provide a way for Japan to apply international constraining force against North Korea.

unless the weight of Japanese public opinion, sympathetic to the abduction of peer citizens and resentful of North Korea, does not enlarge to people elsewhere. That may be to be ascribed in part to the cynical view abroad that Japanese are not same concerned about international human rights issues.

Atrocious violations of human rights have been brought to the attention of the commission from all throughout the world, from the Middle East to Chechnya and East Timor.

Commenting upon current Japanese attitudes, Donald Gregg former U ambassador to toward the south Korea, said he could understand the feelings of relatives of the abducted Japanese. still he was taken aback on the fact that Japanese were not in the way that conscious of so many the bulk of mankind having been brought by force to Japan from the Korean Peninsula in the past. Similar sentiments about Japanese attitudes have been press outed in South Korea.

If we await the sympathy of other nations, we must be rational and broad-minded about the anguish of victims of human rights violations elsewhere, including past colonial command and human rights violations on the Japanese themselves.

In this way, we will be able to solidify our position in relation to North Korea.

(Nov. 20)

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