N. Korea, Japan edge toward diplomatic thaw

It was an extraordinary plot that might have come from spy novelist John le Carre -- and even he might not have dreamed up a climax so surprising as the admission this week by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

Meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, Kim admitted that Korean spies had kidnapped 11 Japanese in the late 1970s and early 1980s to train spies in the Japanese language and culture and to allow the spies to assume their identities. All but four of the 11 are dead.

Japan, which colonized the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945, and North Korea have never had diplomatic relations. Talks at easing the tension have been hampered by Japan's forcing of thousands of Koreans to work in Japanese mines and to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers.

Of significance to Americans, Kim asked Japan to relay its willingness to accept U.S. inspections of suspected nuclear-weapons programs. President Bush has included North Korea in an "axis of evil" that includes Iran and Iraq.

The full significance of Kim's new openness remains to be determined. But what we've heard so far is a good start.