북한 핵·일본인납치 문제 관련 기술의 분석

Abstract

North Korea and Japan agreed on the reexamination of the abduction issue on August 13th. In the 1990s, the main problems between North Korea and Japan were about the multilateral talks on the nuclear weapons and missiles which were being developed by North Korea. But since North Korea admitted the existence of the Japanese nationals who had been kidnapped a couple of decades ago when Koizumi visited Pyeongyang in 2002, the abduction issue has been the most crucial point in the diplomatic and domestic terms. This paper intends to analyse the contents dealing with the nuclear and missile issue and the abduction issue in the history textbooks for Japanese high school students, which were revised and published in 2007. I analysed fourteen textbooks published by seven publishing companies and found out that only four Japanese history books dealt with abduction issue and only one world history book explained about North Korea’s nuclear weapons. There was only one textbook which dealt with both abduction and nuclear issues at the same time and it was published by a certain publishing company. Other two textbooks mentioned the hereditary dictatorship and isolation of North Korea but there were no explanation about the nuclear issue or abduction issue. This means that all in all, the contents related to North Korea are given very little weight in the Japanese textbooks. Japanese textbooks put more emphasis on the abduction issue rather than nuclear weapons. According to the description of textbooks, the issue is an unsolved diplomatic subject that Japan is facing as a top priority and should be regarded as a social threat as well as the natural disaster or economic depression. These attitudes toward the issue reflect the strategy adopted by the Japanese conservative right wing. The fact that the North Korean leader Kim Jong’il admitted the abduction was a really shocking news to the Japanese people, who immediately got susceptible to collective victim mentality unlike their historical assailant status. To the rightists, the general antagonistic sentiment toward North Korea could work as advantageous environment to arouse crisis consciousness and patriotic agitation among the Japanese. On the other hand, the Japanese textbooks show relatively indifferent and passive attitude to the nuclear weapon issue compared to the abduction issue. Although Japan had excessively reacted to North Korean missiles and submarines for spying until the 1990s, nowadays textbooks only explain that Japan should pursue the resolution of the nuclear problem in the process of six-party talks. In the textbooks, there are little description on the essence of nuclear issue and its possibility of becoming a major threat to Japan. It is surprising that there is no mention about North Korea’s announcement that it already has nuclear weapons. Japanese history textbooks seem to turn away from the reality that the abduction issue has played as the biggest obstacle to the progress of the two countries relations which is much needed for both country, reflecting Japanese political background. Recently, there is a rapid progress in resolving the nuclear issue through six-party talks, especially talks between North Korea and the US. Those process have influenced on the agreement about reexamination of the abductees. Although the Japanese textbooks don’t include these recent progresses, we should carefully take note of the description in them and their possible change in the future.