Tokyo tries to keep a brave face on the agreements reached at last week's six-nation talks in Beijing aimed at putting an end to North Korea's nuclear development plans. But no amount of strong talk about refusing any direct participation in aid or other concessions to North Korea unless Pyongyang accepts Tokyo's demands on the "abductee issue" can disguise the fact that Japan is in breach of an important international agreement even before the ink has dried on it.
Nor can it disguise the extent of the embarrassing knockback it has suffered at the hands of its ally, the United States.
Tokyo had tried to insist that the U.S. and the other four parties to the talks should not make any concessions until Pyongyang had dropped its hardline refusal to discuss the abductee issue. For months it has been telling us about how the U.S. and South Korea agreed with this linkage. But it is now clear that the U.S. and the others have ignored Tokyo's linkage demands.