Cablegate: Tokyo Media Reaction - Inter-Korean Relations

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UNCLAS TOKYO 002761

SIPDIS

STATE FOR I/RF, PA/PR/FPC/W, IIP/G/EA, EAP/PD, R/MR,
EAP/J, EAP/P, PM;
USTR FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE;
TREASURY FOR OASIA/IMI;
SECDEF FOR OASD/PA;
CP BUTLER OKINAWA FOR AREA FIELD OFFICE;
PACOM HONOLULU FOR PUBLIC DIPLOMACY ADVISOR

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OIIP KMDR KPAO JA
SUBJECT: TOKYO MEDIA REACTION - INTER-KOREAN RELATIONS

1. LEAD STORIES: Top stories on Friday morning included
the growing likelihood that an envisaged snap election
on November 2 will be postponed, as well as the LDP's
instruction to all GOJ ministries and agencies that
they must alert and provide it in advance any policy-
related data requested by opposition parties.

2. "Tensions to Last Long" The liberal Tokyo Shimbun
wrote from Seoul (10/3): "Friday marks the first
anniversary of the Inter-Korean summit between DPRK
leader Kim Jong Il and then South Korean President Roh
in Pyongyang in 2007. The joint summit declaration
released following the meeting has become effectively
nullified due to a change in government in South Korea
in March. As Thursday's bilateral military talks at
Panmunjom failed to produce any results, the cooling of
inter-Korean relations, as well as bilateral tensions,
is likely to last long in view of the reported illness
of Kim Jong Il."

SCHIEFFER

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