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Japan Today - Friday, March 14, 2003
Japan, U.S. consider sanctions on N Korea
TOKYO - Japan will impose economic sanctions on North Korea jointly with the United States and other willing nations if it test-launches a ballistic missile, Japanese government sources said Thursday.
The sanctions, which would include the suspension of cash transfers to North Korea, will take effect without any U.N. resolution, the sources said.
Japan has already reached an accord on the sanctions with the U.S., Britain and France and plans to seek support from South Korea, which has maintained the "sunshine policy" of engagement toward North Korea.
Haruhiko Kuroda, financial adviser at the Cabinet Secretariat, will discuss details of the freezing of funds with U.S. officials in Washington. He headed to the U.S. earlier Thursday for a four-day visit.
Japan considers a ballistic missile launch by North Korea violates the Pyongyang Declaration signed last September by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, committing North Korea to freeze ballistic missile launches beyond 2003.
When a Taepodong ballistic missile was fired in 1998 and flew over Japan, Japan did not take significant countermeasures due partly to the gap in views with the U.S. over whether it was a missile or a rocket carrying a satellite into orbit, a senior Foreign Ministry official said.
Japan has judged that adoption of a U.N. Security Council resolution over the possible launch of Rodong or Taepodong ballistic missiles would be difficult. International law allows missile test-firing into high seas and exclusive economic waters.
Japan will instead seek a multilateral action based on the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Control Law, which permits the Japanese government to invoke sanctions in case the measures are believed to contribute to international efforts to preserve peace.
As the foreign exchange law basically requires international coordination such as a U.N. resolution for Japan to halt money remittances to and trade with specific countries, some ruling party lawmakers are moving to amend it.
The government favors the multilateral approach as it believes Japan taking a unilateral measure would heighten national security risks, a Foreign Ministry source said.
Japan plans to suspend money transfers to groups and organizations in North Korea and ban exports to the country by concluding a written agreement with the U.S. and other countries, the sources said.
In case North Korea reactivates its nuclear fuel reprocessing facility in Yongbyon, Japan expects to see the U.N. Security Council adopt a resolution denouncing North Korea.
It plans to urge council members including China and Russia, which have been allies of the North, to first adopt a resolution denouncing Pyongyang and then a resolution approving economic sanctions.
Japan will also consider sanctions including the freezing of a Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization project to build two light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea, the sources said.
The amount of cash transfers from Japan to North Korea is said to amount to tens of billions of yen per year, including undisclosed sums legally reported to the government and illicit sums believed to have been sent through failed Chogin credit unions for pro-Pyongyang Korean residents in Japan.
Trade between the two countries totaled 45.3 billion yen in 2002 with imports and exports combined.
More than 30 lawmakers are seeking a revision of the foreign exchange law during the current Diet session. (Kyodo News)