Tokyo intends to summon the Russian ambassador to Japan after Moscow arrested a Japanese journalist, several Japanese media outlets reported on Wednesday, amid severe tension between the two countries.
The Asahi TV network reported that the Foreign Ministry would summon Ambassador Nikolai Nozdrev to demand the immediate release of the journalist who was arrested in Russia on suspicion of espionage, while Kyodo News Agency reported that the ministry would urge Moscow to ensure fair treatment for him and share information about him.
On Tuesday, the Russian Federal Security Service announced the arrest of a Japanese journalist on suspicion of involvement in espionage activities, by collecting information about Russian defense capabilities on Sakhalin Island, located in the far east of the country.
Later, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the journalist is Yuki Imai from the Hokkaido Shimbun newspaper, explaining that he was accredited to the ministry, but he is currently accused of “practicing espionage activities on Russian soil.”
“It is unfortunate that Tokyo is trying to use its correspondents in Russia... to collect information aimed at undermining the security of our state,” Zakharova said, adding that this is “not an isolated case.”
Russian media reported that he was placed in pretrial detention until December 12.
In recent years, Russia has arrested a number of citizens of countries it classifies as “unfriendly,” accusing them of working for Western intelligence services.
The journalist, who has a license from the Russian Foreign Ministry to work in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the administrative capital of the Sakhalin region, is accused of spying for “one of the Japanese special security services,” according to TASS.
These charges carry a penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
Russian-Japanese relations are witnessing sharp tensions, especially against the backdrop of the disputed islands between the two countries in the Far East, which were controlled by the Soviet army during World War II in 1945.
A new bridge linking China and North Korea will be opened this week, Chinese state television reported on Wednesday, 12 years after its construction, in a new indication of deepening economic relations between Beijing and Pyongyang.
The new Yalu River Bridge, which will open tomorrow, Thursday, according to the state broadcaster CCTV, connects the border city of Dandong, located in northeastern China, with one of the most isolated countries in the world.
The construction of the bridge, which consists of four lanes and extends 3,026 metres, was completed in 2014, but its opening was postponed due to problems including the absence of link roads and customs facilities on the North Korean side, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap.
China is North Korea's largest trading partner and a vital source of diplomatic, economic and political support for the nuclear-armed state.
North Korea closed its borders during the “Covid-19” pandemic, and train trips between the two neighbors in East Asia resumed last March, after a six-year hiatus.
The new bridge was designed to be an alternative to the “China-Korea Friendship Bridge,” which was previously used regularly to operate passenger trains, but its capacity is limited.
North Korea has not yet resumed issuing tourist visas to Chinese citizens, who previously made up the vast majority of its visitors from abroad.
The opening of the new Yalu River Bridge comes more than a month after North Korea and Russia opened their first land bridge, a move hailed by Pyongyang as evidence of closer relations.
Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said on Tuesday that officials are reviewing the code of conduct for US forces in Japan outside military bases, after a woman was killed in Okinawa by a US Marine.
Crimes committed by US military personnel, which include rape, assaults, hit-and-run accidents and drunk driving, have long sparked protests in Japan's southern island, which has for years called on other regions of the country to share the burden of hosting US forces.
“We plan to hold talks that include whether the current rules are effective,” Motegi said, adding that “issues such as patrols and curfew management” would be reviewed in talks with the United States.
He pointed out that the high-level bilateral consultations will address the behavior of American military personnel outside duty hours and the “freedom” policy that governs their private activities outside military bases.
Japanese police arrested a US Marine stationed in Okinawa last week on suspicion of killing a 39-year-old woman at a hotel in the capital, Naha.
The US Army imposed an operational suspension for two days after the soldier's arrest, to enhance discipline and standards, followed by a curfew for a month starting at midnight, according to Agence France-Presse.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said on Tuesday: “We began high-level working consultations between Japan and the United States last week, regarding the effective measures that should be taken,” and she added before a legislative committee session: “The Japanese government will continue to do everything in its power to address this issue and ensure that it does not happen again.”
The crimes committed by American soldiers created tension in relations between the two close security allies.
Last year, a Japanese court sentenced a US Marine accused of strangling and attempting to rape a woman in her twenties to imprisonment for seven years.
It is noteworthy that there are about 54,000 American soldiers in Japan, most of them in Okinawa.
