Controversial trip

last updated 8 January 2015

Tokyo

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi returned from an unexpectedly brief summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il this week and tried to quell reports that he had been snubbed. “I don’t think the length or shortness of a meeting is a standard for measuring success,” Koizumi told Parliament. Koizumi promised Kim tons of food and medical aid, hoping to persuade him to dismantle his nuclear program. Koizumi also sought the release of family members of Japanese people who were kidnapped by the North Koreans during the Cold War and repatriated in 2002. He returned from the 10-hour visit with five children of two repatriated couples, but without a clear pledge that Kim would give up his nuclear weapons.