Newly appointed Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda hinted Friday that Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori should not have revealed to British Prime Minister Tony Blair a proposal made in 1997 to Pyongyang concerning Japanese allegedly kidnapped by North Korea.
Mori stirred up controversy by telling Blair last week that a 1997 ruling coalition mission to North Korea suggested that Pyongyang could return the Japanese by pretending to have found them in other countries.
During his first news conference after being appointed, Fukuda said, "It can be said that (Mori) could have avoided making such a statement." He added, however, that he does not believe the prime minister's action caused a serious problem.