That old saying about democracies being their own worst enemies is getting a good workout in Japan's abductee dispute with North Korea. By any standards, North Korea's willingness to release five Japanese abducted in the 1970s following Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's Sept. 17 breakthrough visit to Pyongyang was remarkable.

But the wave of emotional, anti-Pyongyang fever sweeping Japan's media following the return of the abductees has pushed the relationship right back to where it started, or worse. The initial wave of enthusiasm for the prime minister's initiative has quickly soured.

True, Japanese public opinion has had every right to be upset by the record of past North Korean abductions. Demands that the children of abductees also come to Japan are also understandable. But how can this be done if Tokyo breaks its Sept. 17 promise to allow the abductees or their relatives go to North Korea to talk with the children?