WASHINGTON (AFP) — Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda has warned that North Korea must renounce its nuclear weapons program if the Stalinist nation wants to "survive" as an independent state.
In a CNN interview recorded Friday before he finished a lightning visit to Washington, and broadcast Sunday, Fukuda also renewed demands on Pyongyang to come clean on missing Japanese believed abducted by North Korean spies.
"Well, as an independent country, if it, North Korea, wishes to survive, then I think they need to give up their nuclear weapons and at the same time will think of their economic independence," he said through an interpreter.
"They need Japan's economic cooperation as well. Therefore, the abduction issue needs to be settled as well," said Fukuda, a 71-year-old political veteran who took over as Japan's leader in September.
"There are, of course, disparate views regarding these matters but as far as we're concerned, to the extent they are a threat to neighboring countries, I think it is very difficult for them to be an independent state."
Fukuda suggested that North Korea now was not fully independent because of its parlous economy.
"And economically, since they have a regime that is totally different from our free regime and I don't think you can call that an independent country, and the way they are, their country will sort of taper off and perhaps at the end of the day will disappear."
Fukuda on Friday held his first formal face-to-face talks with US President George W. Bush, and pledged to make his "utmost efforts" to restart a Japanese naval mission supporting US-led efforts in Afghanistan.
Washington did not hide its unhappiness earlier this month when the Japanese opposition forced a suspension in the naval mission to supply fuel to US-led forces in Afghanistan when its mandate expired.
The two leaders also discussed the international efforts to dismantle North Korea's nuclear drive.
Japan has vowed to withhold its aid for North Korea under a six-nation deal reached in February to end Pyongyang's nuclear programs until progress is made on the abduction issue.
Bush promised US support over the problem of Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea in the 1970s and 1980s to train its spies, which has flared up amid Japanese anger over US plans to say Pyongyang no longer sponsors terrorism.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il admitted in 2002 to his state having abducted Japanese citizens, and has since returned five kidnap victims and their spouses and children.
Pyongyang, however, says others who were abducted are dead and the issue is closed. Tokyo believes there are other kidnapped Japanese still being held, possibly because they know state secrets.
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