Twenty years ago this week, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made history by meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in the first-ever summit between the two countries.

But what was expected to be a major turning point in North Korea-Japan relations instead launched a new crisis that has defined bilateral relations between the two neighbors ever since.

Negotiations between North Korea and Japan began in late 2001. It was widely understood that as a part of a normalization deal, Japan would pay Pyongyang reparations for damages inflicted during colonial rule of Korea. The payment was expected to be as