It turns out that North Korea isn’t serious about returning to the six-way talks after all. Kyodo is passing along a report from Itar-Tass that Kim Jong-il has added another condition for Pyongyang’s participation. Not only does he demand the usual from the United States, Kim now says the Japanese have to stop creating “serious problems” in the abduction issue between the two countries. Japan is applying pressure so the North will come clean about the bogus death certificates and bones, and the North says the issue is resolved and won’t discuss it again.

The Japanese are as likely to let up on their pressure as shrimp are to learn how to whistle. Even in the unlikely event that the Koizumi administration would agree, public opinion is now driving foreign policy, a rare condition in Japan. The public is not about to forgive and forget, and the news media is more than willing to help them hold the government’s feet to the fire.

The North Korean demand may be pointless, however, as the process regarding the abductions has gone beyond the bilateral phase. This report from Kyodo announces the visit to Japan of a U.N. envoy later this month to look into the abduction issue. He will meet with government officials and the family members of the abducted people. The envoy will report to the office of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva in March.

I could be wrong, of course, but I get the impression that the U.S. and Japan are now resolved to apply a full-court press on the North Koreans (and the Chinese) to settle the issue without resorting to military force. Recent North Korean behavior reeks of the sweat of desperation and the realization that the rest of the world has finally thrown up their hands and said, “Enough”.

Incidentally, the U.N. envoy is Thai university professor Vitit Muntarbhorn. His official title is the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in North Korea, a designation that makes me laugh every time I read it.