N. Korea Demands Japan Drop Abductions Issue

Does this sound like a nation that has renounced terrorism?

North Korea-Japan relations will never improve if Japan continues to link their improvement with a bilateral dispute over North Korea’s past abductions of Japanese nationals, North Korea’s state-run media said Thursday.

In a lengthy commentary, the Korean Central News Agency said that North Korea has not forgiven Japan for forcing many Korean women into sexual slavery and taking many Korean men to Japan during World War II, and that it will make the country pay.  [Kyodo News]

The  U.S. government  has sent conflicting signals  about North Korea’s terror-sponsor listing recently.  Despite rumors to the contrary, Ambassador Alexander Vershbow  insists  that the United States will not de-list North Korea unless North Korea fully declares its nuclear programs:

”Our position has not changed…As Assistant Secretary (Christopher) Hill said many times, ‘complete and correct’ means ‘complete and correct….”’   [Kyodo News]