Number: RL32161
Title: Japan-North Korea Relations: Selected Issues
Authors: Mark E. Manyin, Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division 
Abstract: Japans role is potentially critical in the current crisis over North Koreas nuclear weapons programs for a number of reasons. Most importantly, Japan has promised North Korea a large-scale economic aid package to compensate for the Japanese occupation of the Korean Peninsula from 1910-1945, much as it gave South Korea economic assistance when Tokyo and Seoul normalized relations in 1965. The assistance is to be provided after the countries agree to normalize relations, a process that Japan now links to a resolution of the nuclear issue. Reportedly, Japanese officials are discussing a package on the order of $5-$10 billion, an enormous sum for the North Korean economy, the total GDP of which is estimated to be in the $20 billion range. Currently, Japan is a significant source of North Koreas foreign exchange, by virtue of the large Japanese market for the North Korean governments suspected drug-running operations, and of remittances from Korean permanent residents in Japan. Japan is North Koreas third-largest trading partner.
Pages: 18
Date: Updated November 26, 2003