A Japanese daily reported Wednesday the Japanese government decided to postpone its humanitarian rice aid shipment to North Korea this year.
The Mainichi Shimbun said Tokyo has positively reviewed an appeal from the World Food Program (WFP) that Japan send 200,000 tons of rice to the famine-stricken North but determined to put off the donation facing opposition from some lawmakers in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party(LDP). As justification, the lawmakers cited the North's insincere attitude toward normalization of ties and the issue of Japanese citizens allegedly kidnapped by North Korean agents. The newspaper also quoted Japanese Foreign Ministry officials saying, "We don't have to hurry up sending aid to North Korea considering the political and diplomatic power hierarchy surrounding Japan-North Korea relations."