Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s decision to go to North Korea and hold face-to-face talks with its leader Kim Jong Il was a high-risk strategy. There is more than a half-century of mutual animosity between the two states. The North Koreans still feel bitter about Japan’s cruel colonial regime in Korea from 1910 to 1945. For their part, the Japanese have been angered by Pyongyang’s demand for reparations for the colonial era, appalled at the tyranny of a one-man state that was prepared to let people starve, and frightened about its nuclear plans, particularly after a North Korean ballistic missile flew over Tokyo in August 1998. Added to this, there has been bitterness for the past 20 years over the fate of several Japanese kidnapped off beaches by North Korean commandos.
Many Japanese remain profoundly suspicious about having anything to do with it and certainly do not think that the Japanese government should be giving it any economic aid.
But the visit has turned out to be something of a diplomatic triumph for Koizumi, who might have been imagined to be the last person to hold out the hand of friendship across the Korea Strait. The most overtly nationalist prime minister since World War II, his political sympathies have till now been at one with Japan’s rightwing, most of whom still despise North Korea. Indeed, there is still a strong element of racism in the way some right-wing Japanese regard all Koreans.
But they are not the majority. Koizumi’s popularity has leapt 10 percentage points as a result of the Pyongyang visit and four out of every five Japanese approve of his handling of the summit. Walking into the den could have been a public-relations disaster. He could have been mauled. Instead, he found a beast that is busy trying to change its spots. Koizumi’s trip is a triumph because North Korea made the most remarkable and most unexpected volte-face. Yes, said Kim Jong Il, we did kidnap Japanese citizens; most are now dead but we’re very sorry and those responsible have been punished. And yes, of course, we will allow international inspections of our nuclear facilities. Not even Bush could achieve that.
The way in which North Korea is changing and the speed at which such change is happening is remarkable. We all know why. The country has stared over the economic abyss and desperately needs all the financial help it can get. There is every reason to believe that, although there are elements in the military who are deeply unhappy about opening up to the outside, Kim Jong Il now wants to make real changes and follow China’s lead, balancing one-party rule with economic liberalization. A start already has been made inside the country: people are being allowed to produce food privately to sell in the markets; small private shops are being allowed. It is not much so far, but the dike has been breached. The same goes with international relations: Pyongyang is talking a different language.
Of course, sooner or later, North Korea was bound to change; it could not remain isolated for ever. Even so, the sight of it changing its spots is an extraordinary spectacle — and if it and Japan can end decades of suspicion and hatred so simply, then anyone else can.
