Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura indicated Sunday that Japan will not expand its sanctions against North Korea, although he said the existing ones will be continued unless Pyongyang accounts for the missing Japanese nationals it has abducted. ( Kyodo )
The remarks, made in response to questions at a public forum in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, in western Japan, effectively turn down a request delivered by the abductees' relatives a day earlier to Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura for additional sanctions.