The Cause Research Of Impeding The Normalization Of Diplomatic Relations Between Japan And North Korea

The dissolution of the Soviet Union in the early1990s, declared the end of theCold War. With the collapse of bipolar world divided by the United States and theSoviet Union, the world began transitional period and made way for the new world.World situation was dramatically changed. Northeast Asia was also faced with ahistoric change. From an overall perspective, world environmental tended to berelaxed. Almost all the countries hoped to grasp this opportunities to improve therelationship with neighboring countries, while Korea kept conservative during thisperiod. North Korea mainly depended on the help of the Soviet Union and China tomaintain the country security before Cold War because she belonged to socialist camp.The dissolution of the Soviet Union coupled with the serious natural disasters inmid-1990s made North Korea miserable. The North Korea leaders had to considerhow to maintain security and how to get rid of the situation discarded by the externalenvironment, so they took positive foreign policy in order to achieve a breakthroughin the improvement of bilateral relations with other countries. They not only keptgood relations with traditionally friendly countries, but also attached great importanceto improving relations with Japan. The normalization of bilateral relations could bringNorth Korea economic compensation and financial assistance. Of course, thenormalization of bilateral relations also had an important significance to Japan.From the analysis of the geopolitical, Japan surrounded by the sea, lack of resourcesand the security environment is very fragile. Japan has territorial disputes with othercountries in Northeast Asia and historical issues exist, so bilateral relations are tenseand sensitive. North Korea continues to carry out nuclear and missile tests, whichmakes Japan feel constantly threatened by outsiders. Moreover, DPRK-US andinter-Korean relations are improved with the situation in Northeast Asia after the ColdWar. If Japan could not recognize the importance of normalization of diplomaticrelations with the DPRK, they will gradually lose their own voice on the KoreanPeninsula issue, weakening their impact force. Therefore, the realization of thenormalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and North Korea are an important part of their national strategy, which is a mutual need.Bilateral diplomatic talks have carried out more than a dozen since1991, but noprogress. They could not make agreements in some respects and make bilateralrelations into a vicious cycle. Why did this happen? In history, DPRK kept developingnuclear weapons and conducting missile tests against international sanctions, whichrepeated threat to Japan’s national security, thus force Japan to strengthen theJapan-US alliance, in order to improve their military capabilities. Japan and US areinextricably linked and Japan is unable to seize the initiative in the Japan-DPRKbilateral relation. In recent years, with the emergence of the abduction issue, thedomestic media and public have a one-sided demonized opinion on North Korea. Thepeople take a negative attitude toward bilateral relations and the normalization ofdiplomatic relations is difficult to carry out. North Korea always demands that Japanmust recognize the previous aggression history and make an apology andcompensation. Or they could not move forward. Actually, Japan and North Korea takecompletely different ways in diplomatic negotiations. Both countries hold theiropinions during several negotiations and meetings, which continue to set up obstaclesto the normalization of diplomatic relations. It is very difficult to realize thenormalization of bilateral relations between Japan and North Korea. Hopefully, theycould make compromise in some respects and encounter some rare opportunities inthe new era, thereby they could speed up the normalization of diplomatic relations.