LEAD: N. Korea warns of 'counteraction' against Japan 'tough steps'

Japan Policy & Politics, Feb 28, 2005

TOKYO, Feb. 24 Kyodo

(EDS: RECASTING WITH MORE INFO)

North Korea warned Japan on Thursday of a ''counteraction'' if Japan imposes economic sanctions or any other ''tough steps'' on the country over Pyongyang's abductions of Japanese citizens, Japan's Foreign Ministry said.

North Korea reiterated in a document faxed to the Japanese Embassy in Beijing that it ''can never accept'' Japan's DNA test results that showed the ashes Pyongyang claimed were those of a Japanese abductee were those of other people, it said.

Responding to Japan's protest on the matter Feb. 10, North Korea said it has no intention to discuss the issue of the ashes with Japan and urged it to return them and punish officials responsible for the tests, the ministry said.

As for Japan's repeated warning that it will take ''tough steps'' unless North Korea makes a sincere response on the issue, the North said it will opt to counter steps Japan takes with actions of its own, it said.

The comments drew a mixed reaction from among Japanese leaders.

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi indicated patience. ''We need to closely examine them as it has often been the case that the country's superficial remarks differ from its real intentions,'' he said at his office.

Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura voiced anger at the fresh development, saying, ''We literally feel outrage over the repeated insincere responses.''

''We have no choice but to take tough steps if this kind of insincere response continues, as we have warned,'' he said, clarifying that the steps may include economic sanctions.

But Machimura also said that Japan will take into account developments on the stalled six-country talks on North Korea's nuclear arms program in considering what next steps it will take.

Announcing North Korea's responses in a news conference, Senior Vice Foreign Minister Ichiro Aisawa said the Japanese government will take into account public calls for a deadline on imposing sanctions on North Korea in working out its next steps.

''We are aware that there are calls in the Diet and among the public for setting a deadline in dealing with North Korea,'' Aisawa said. ''Including that idea, the government will work out how to deal with the country.''

Japan plans to brief other parties to the six-country talks on the development and seek the cooperation of the Untied States and South Korea when the three countries' chief delegates to the talks gather Saturday in Seoul, the officials said.

China and Russia are also participants in the talks.

Japan has tried to resolve the abduction issue bilaterally with North Korea but their talks have been stalled since a meeting in November in Pyongyang.

Japan filed its first protest in December after finding via DNA tests that the ashes North Korea provided in the November talks as the cremated remains of abductee Megumi Yokota were not hers. Yokota was abducted by North Korea in 1977 at age 13.

It has also found no information and materials from the November meeting supporting North Korea's claim that eight abductees are dead and two others Japan sees as abductees have never entered its territory.

The abduction issue has prevented the two countries, which have no diplomatic ties, from resuming talks on normalizing their relations.