Saturday, November 22, 2003
Japan mulls sanctions on North Korea to curb its N-plans
Associated Press Tokyo, November 22
The Japanese government is drafting legislation that would let Tokyo slap economic sanctions on Pyongyang to force it to abandon its suspected nuclear weapons programme, news reports said on Saturday.
The reports quoted Shinzo Abe, deputy to Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, as saying that the government will submit the bill when Parliament resumes in January.
Koizumi's ruling coalition wants to pressure North Korea into giving up its nuclear weapons development and missile launches, the Yomiuri newspaper reported. The Asahi, another major daily, carried a similar report.
LDP officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Japanese law doesn't currently let the government independently impose economic sanctions on another country. Until now, Tokyo has only used them in response to United Nations resolutions or other multinational agreements.
The government has a majority in Parliament and would likely succeed in passing such a bill.
Sanctions also have strong bipartisan sentiment among lawmakers. A survey conducted this month showed more than three-quarters of legislators agreed that laws should be passed to penalise North Korea by restricting trade, monetary remittances and port calls by the North's ships.
© Hindustan Times Ltd. 2003.