Japanese North Korean Summit

What

Following a phone call with Donald Trump to discuss recent North Korean missiles being launched into the Sea of Japan, Shinzo Abe offered to meet with Kim Jong Un without the precondition of progress on the abductions of Japanese citizens that took place during the late 1970's and early 1980's. This is crucial considering previous Trump-Kim denuclearization talks failed to make an agreement.

A similar situation has happened before, in 2002 when former President George Bush named North Korea in the Axis of Evil, weakening American-North Korean relations. At the time, North Korea for the first time acknowledged the 1970/1980's kidnappings in order to strengthen their relationship with Japan in fear of American military intervention. Nevertheless, North Korean-Japanese relations cooled as soon as North Korean-Japanese relations improved, thus long term outcomes are uncertain.

Background

Between 1910 and 1945, Korea was under imperialist Japanese rule. Moreover, during WW2, Korean men were conscripted to fight alongside Japan, and Korean women were sent to serve as "comfort women." Following the warrantees, Korea gained independence and was split; yet reparations for Japanese imperialist rule has remained a sore spot in North Korean-Japanese relations, and is often met with demands for bilateral nuclear inspections in conjunction with South Korea. Other points of contention include a lack of information regarding Japanese migrants in the 1960's (no data on emigration) and the abductions.

Nevertheless, the North Korea's primary ambitions are ridding itself of sanctions, and potentially developing ICBMs to establish a position of mutually assured destruction with the US. This has been made difficult, however, due to constant international pressure to deescalate nuclear research and missile development.

Considerations

Japan is already cognizant of North Korea's ability to launch a nuclear attack on Japan, thus there is a tremendous pressure on Shinzo Abe to make progress on denuclearization talks given Trump's failure. Tensions are certainly high given extremely recent missile tests, yet Japan has a particularly advantageous negotiating position at the moment due to the breakdown in North Korean-American relations. Previously in April 2018, a cargo ship exporting coal (illegal under current sanctions) was seized by America. North Korea has continued to call for its return, calling the siezure robbery. No matter the outcome of that debate, however, Abe stands to gain from the breakdown in North-Korea's relation with the American military power.