Japan Press Weekly

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2007 March 21 - 27 [JCP]

JCP Ogata Talks with South Korean Parliament Members

Japanese Communist Party Vice Chair and House of Councillors member Ogata Yasuo on March 26 received a delegation from the visiting South Korean inter-party study group “Korea and World Peace Network” in the Diet.

The delegation consisted of South Korean National Assembly members Go Jin-Hwa (Grand National Party) and Lee Young-Soon (Democratic Labor Party), co-representatives of the study group.

The meeting was attended by JCP International Bureau Vice-Director and House of Representatives member Kasai Akira.

The South Korean lawmakers talked about the changing situation in Northeast Asia in conjunction with the development of the Six-Party Talks, the task of implementing the agreement reached in the February round of the talks, the issue of wartime sex-slavery, the issue of Japan’s constitutional “revision”, and human rights of Korean residents in Japan.

Ogata gave his view on the Japanese government’s position in the Six-Party Talks, the importance of settling the issue of abductions by North Korea of Japanese citizens, the government attitude toward the wartime sex slave issue, and the issue of suffrage for Korean residents. Kasai spoke about Japan’s constitutional issue.

Views on political situations in the two countries were also exchanged.

Both sides recognized the usefulness of exchanging opinions, saying that they wanted to have further exchanges. - Akahata, March 27, 2007