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Article: Japanwields a stick at North Korea
- Article from:
- International Herald Tribune
- Article date:
- February 12, 2005
- Author:
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James Brooke
International Herald Tribune
02-12-2005
Faced with North Korea's declaration of nuclear weapons status, Japan's prime minister performed a deft political kabuki Friday, urging his bellicose neighbor to join disarmament talks, while letting the clock run on a new law that will bar most North Korean ships from Japanese ports starting March 1. ''I understand calls for imposing sanctions are growing,'' Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters in Sapporo, about 1,000 kilometers, or 600 miles, across the Sea of Japan from North Korea. ''But we have to urge them to come to the talks in the first place.'' From a circle around the isolated Northeast Asian state, Japan, Russia, ...