Friday, November 17, 2006

Japan's ruling party may consider helping Shiokaze

A report on the Daily NK website, quoting the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun, says Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) has decided to consider whether to support Shiokaze, a Japanese radio company that broadcasts shortwave radio programmes for the North Koreans on issues related to the Japanese abductees.

According to the Yomiuri, LDP’s Abduction Committee held its first meeting on Tuesday and decided to ask the government to provide a subsidy for the shortwave radio company, run by the private “Missing People Investigation Commission.” Also the Committee required the Japanese government to allocate the necessary budget for Shiokaze. Since it was subsidy for a specific private organization, a thorough investigation would be conducted before compilation of the budget.

Shiokaze has been broadcasting toward North Korea twice per day since last October, and has been run by donations. The programme mainly consists of readings of letters from the families of the missing people who are allegedly abducted by North Korea.

(Source: Yomiuri Shimbun via Daily NK/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)