Foreign Minister Kono met his counterparts of various countries including the U.S. secretary of State in Singapore, told them that the settlement of the abduction issue is important, and asked them to understand it and actively cooperate in it.

Rodong Sinmun in a commentary on Wednesday terms this soliciting diplomacy utterly mean and poor.

The commentary goes on:

This year the international political trend around the Korean peninsula has undergone a complete change.

Many countries are active in developing their relations with the DPRK.

However, only Japan was excluded from this and left alone in the region and the world.

The authorities of Japan are working overtly and covertly to get rid of this unfavorable position. While asking for a dialogue with the DPRK, it is busy going here and there with the issue of abduction. Lurking behind this is its ulterior design to impair the international prestige of the DPRK by hyping the issue of abduction worldwide and to meddle in the issue of the Korean peninsula by twisting the essence of the issue of the DPRK-Japan relations and thus evading its atonement for the past crimes, the biggest unsettled issue.

The politicians of Japan should not resort to clumsy soliciting diplomacy with the issue of abduction but honestly atone for its past crimes by facing up to the changed strategic status of the DPRK and the trend of the times as it is obliged to do so.