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U.S. to Delist North Korea As Sponsor Of Terrorism
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Officials said that Bush telephoned Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda on Wednesday to tell him that the United States remains concerned about the abduction issue. "The United States will never forget the abduction of Japanese citizens," he said in his Rose Garden statement.
"No one in Japan is satisfied, but the Bush administration can say we have pressured North Korea to reopen negotiations with Japan about the abductees," said Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Honolulu.
Cossa said that if North Korea is removed from the terrorism list, the principal regional losers will be "Japan and the image of the United States in Japan."
"The U.S. is now seen as less reliable than it has been for years," he said.
Minoru Morita, a political analyst in Tokyo, predicted that the U.S. move "will probably light a small fire to Japanese nationalism and anti-Americanism."
If there is a clear winner from Thursday's diplomatic maneuvering, it is North Korea, Cossa said. He noted that North Korea delivered its declaration six months late and reported nothing on Syria or uranium. "Even though the North Koreans don't keep their promises very well, they demand that everybody else keep theirs," Cossa added.
Wright reported from Washington. Correspondent Jill Drew in Beijing and special correspondents Akiko Yamamoto in Tokyo and Stella Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.
