Japan's powerful rightwing seems determined to use the abduction and other problems with North Korea to wreck Tokyo's stunning breakthrough in relations with that once-secretive nation. Even moderates here have let themselves get involved in the attempted demolition.
For weeks on end now we have had endless spectacles of abductee relatives sobbing into TV cameras and demanding no further breakthrough unless their loved ones are fully accounted for. Someone is funding that effort, and it is not hard to guess who.
True, the past sins of the North Korean regime are undeniable. Its military/intelligence machine has not only felt free to abduct Japanese citizens at will; it has apparently blithely killed those who seemed inconvenient. It has bombed passenger planes, counterfeited foreign currencies, smuggled drugs, and generally behaved in every obnoxious way possible. North Korea's embassies abroad once functioned more like crime centers sheltering behind diplomatic immunity.