Published on July 15, 2019.
Through an essay by Nishioka Tsutomu published in the monthly magazine Sound Argument, this article examines the issues surrounding a possible Japan–North Korea summit after the U.S.–North Korea summit, the abduction issue, and the 10 billion dollars in economic cooperation that North Korea seeks from Japan. It questions the dangers of Japan–North Korea negotiations through Tanaka Hitoshi, the former Foreign Ministry bureau chief who prepared Koizumi’s visit to Pyongyang, records of secret negotiations, the Pyongyang Declaration, and testimony from former senior North Korean officials.

July 15, 2019.
However, according to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Tanaka Hitoshi, the Foreign Ministry bureau chief who prepared Koizumi’s visit to North Korea, did not leave records for two rounds of the secret negotiations.
The following is from an essay by Nishioka Tsutomu published in this month’s issue of the monthly magazine Sound Argument, under the title “The Japan–North Korea Parliamentary League, Former Vice Foreign Minister Tanaka Hitoshi…Has North Korea’s Plot Begun?”
Nishioka Tsutomu is one of the genuine scholars who, like a lifesaver for Japan, clarified that The Asahi Shimbun’s comfort women reporting was completely fabricated reporting, thereby saving Japan from the enormous damage caused by The Asahi Shimbun’s anti-Japanese ideology.
Emphasis in the text other than the headings is mine.
North Korea wants to seize 10 billion dollars.
There are various evaluations of the U.S.–North Korea summit, but the fact that President Trump directly conveyed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s message concerning the abduction issue to the dictator Kim Jong-un was a major achievement.
From inside the Kim Jong-un regime, many voices can be heard saying that the U.S.–North Korea summit was a success, and that the next step is a Japan–North Korea summit.
North Korea began this year’s dialogue offensive thinking that it would secure from the United States the suspension of the decapitation operation and take more than 10 billion dollars from Japan.
At the time of Prime Minister Koizumi’s visit to North Korea in 2002, in secret talks, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had conveyed that the scale of economic cooperation that could be provided after normalization of diplomatic relations would be 10 billion dollars, or about one trillion yen.
This is something on which multiple former senior officials, who were in the central part of Pyongyang at the time and have now defected to South Korea, unanimously testify.
Thae Yong-ho, former minister at the North Korean embassy in the United Kingdom, who defected in 2016, also wrote as follows in a book published in South Korea in May of this year.
“After Prime Minister Koizumi visited Pyongyang and announced the Pyongyang Declaration with Kim Jong-il, First Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok-ju personally gave a lecture to all members in the auditorium of the Foreign Ministry.
Omission.
‘Japan promised to compensate for the damage from colonial rule through economic cooperation.
At least 10 billion dollars will come in.
With 10 billion dollars, all of Korea’s basic infrastructure, such as roads and railways, can be modernized.
Even my heart leapt at the subject of “10 billion dollars.”
My colleagues at the Foreign Ministry also appeared extremely excited.
It was that important and enormous a sum’” (The Cryptography from the Third-Floor Secretariat, pp. 209–211).
The Japanese government has repeatedly maintained its official position that it did not promise any specific amount of money.
However, according to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Tanaka Hitoshi, the Foreign Ministry bureau chief who prepared Koizumi’s visit to North Korea, did not leave records for two rounds of the secret negotiations.
Might the part in which 10 billion dollars was promised be included there?
After the U.S.–North Korea summit ended, the same figure was leaked to the media, and Sankei, Nikkei, and Asahi wrote about it in their pages.
The United Nations views the scale of North Korea’s GNP as about 20 billion dollars, and the Bank of Korea estimates it at about 40 billion dollars.
According to one information source, North Korean economic officials view the scale of their own country’s GNP, on an honest basis, as 20 to 30 billion dollars.
There is no doubt that the sum of 10 billion dollars is extremely attractive to them.
This article continues.