Kanasugi named Japan’s chief negotiator for six-way talks

The Japanese government held a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, and appointed Kenji Kanasugi (56) as director-general of the Asia-Pacific bureau at the foreign ministry, who will serve as the chief negotiator of the six-way talks for denuclearizing North Korea. .

Kanasugi, who is hailing from Tokyo, studied law at Hitotsubashi University before joining the foreign ministry in 1983. After serving as minister at the Japanese Ambassador to Korea in 2014 and 2015, he has been serving as director-general of the economic bureau at the ministry since October last year. Earlier, he had served as a secretary for the Prime Minister at the Yoshihiko Noda administration under the Democratic Party of Japan. Kanasugi will also serve as the chief negotiator of the Korea-Japan director-generals' meeting, and will discuss pending issues between the two countries, including comfort women for the Japanese military, with his Korean counterpart Chung Byung-won, director-general of the Northeast Asia bureau at the Korean foreign ministry.

Kimihiro Ishikane (58), who was named director-general of the Asia Pacific bureau in October last year, has been promoted to director-general of the general diplomatic policy bureau, which is effectively the chief director-general of the ministry, eight months after assuming the previous job. Akitaka Saiki (64), deputy vice minister of the ministry who is retiring, has been succeeded by Shinsuke Sugiyama (63), deputy director-general for foreign affairs.

도쿄=서영아특파원 sya@donga.com