JCP Shii comments on removal of North Korea from U.S. list of states sponsoring terrorism

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo on October 12 published the following statement on the U.S. decision to remove North Korea from its list of state sponsors of terrorism:

The U.S. government agreed with North Korea that inspectors will be allowed to verify the process of disabling undeclared nuclear facilities in addition to all declared nuclear sites "based on mutual agreement." The JCP strongly hopes that this latest move will help the Six-Party Talks to implement the agreements to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula and will encourage North Korea to completely give up its nuclear programs.

If the issue of nuclear weapons undergoes a reasoned process toward resolution, it will help settle the abduction issue pending between Japan and North Korea. The JCP requests that both the Japanese and North Korean governments make efforts to comprehensively settle all these pending issues, including nuclear programs, abductions, and historical questions, based on the Japan-DPRK Pyongyang Declaration of September 2002.

It is important for the Japanese government to proactively defuse the situation using an independent diplomatic strategy to comprehensively settle these pending issues in ways that have been confirmed at the Six-Party Talks, which is, "The Six Parties agree to take coordinate steps to implement the aforementioned consensus in a phased manner in line with the principle of action-for-action'."

- Akahata October 13, 2008