The US has given up on Japan, Bolton.

The former U.S.Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton criticized
the meeting between the US and North Korea on 5th and 6th in the interview with Yomiuri, saying that the US should not start talking about cancelling the appointing North Korea as a terrorist country until the issue of the abduction is settled. ........The US has given up on Japan, in particular the issue of abduction....*1

That Japan's Prime Minister is seen as calling on North Korea to come clean on the kidnapping of a handful of Japanese while casting doubt on his own country's responsibility for the trauma suffered by possibly hundreds of thousands of sex slaves — many of them Korean — doesn't exactly help his negotiation position.......

Abe's refusal to compromise even slightly on the abductions means that Pyongyang and Tokyo will remain estranged — which puts Japan a bit out of step with a U.S. ally that's suddenly ready to engage with North KoreaTime/With reporting by Toko Sekiguchi/Tokyo

Politics, all too politics.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will sign a joint security declaration when Howard visits Japan from Sunday, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Friday in an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun.(Mar. 10, 2007)/yomiuri

This is a good news.As the old saying goes, there are some gods who give up on you, there are other gods who save you.

I had an interesting talk with an old woman who know little about politics. She said NK was wise in declaring she had nuclear weapon: the US didn't attack her, the Iraqi
was stupid, declaring she had no atomic bomb nor chemical weapon; the US attacked her. She said quite innocently, "why don't we start making nuclear weapon and declare that we have it. ------Too simple and inconsiderate, and yet there might be some truth in it.


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「米国は拉致問題見捨てた」…ボルトン氏、厳しく批判
拉致問題

　【ワシントン＝坂元隆】ジョン・ボルトン前米国連大使は８日、本紙と会見し、５～６日に行われた米朝国交正常化作業部会に関連し、「拉致問題が解決するまでは、米政府による北朝鮮のテロ支援国指定解除は交渉すらすべきでない」などと北朝鮮の核問題をめぐる６か国協議の交渉を厳しく批判した。


　ボルトン氏はブッシュ政権内の強硬派として知られたが、任期延長で議会の承認が得られず昨年１２月に辞任した。

　ボルトン氏は、北朝鮮が寧辺の核施設を停止・封印することなどの見返りに金融制裁の解決や５万トンの重油供給などを決めた６か国協議の２月の合意について、「北朝鮮が自発的に核兵器を放棄することなどあり得ない。極めて悪い合意だ」と指摘した。

　米朝作業部会で、日本人拉致問題に関連するテロ支援国指定解除問題が取り上げられたことについては、「米国は日本を、とりわけ拉致問題を見捨てた」とし、「指定解除は、日本が拉致問題で満足のいく解決を得るまで議論すらすべきでない」と述べた。

　そのうえで、北朝鮮やイランの核問題解決には、「経済的、政治的に圧力をかけ、西側との金融取引を禁じるなどして内側から体制変革を促していくしかない」と主張。北朝鮮の核放棄を確認するには、国連安全保障理事会常任理事国の査察官による、場所や日時を問わない「侵入的査察」が必要と指摘した。（2007年3月11日12時23分 読売新聞）