Page 1 of 2 Japan, US tune up defense policies
By Hisane Masaki
TOKYO - Japan and the United States are preparing to convene a meeting of
foreign and defense ministers in mid-January to tune up their defense policies
amid growing security challenges, especially from North Korea.
The Japan-US Security Consultative Committee, as the meeting is formally
called, or "two plus two" as it is informally styled, will be held in the
United States to reaffirm the importance of
strengthening the bilateral security alliance despite key changes in the
government lineup of the close allies since it was last held in May.
In late September, Shinzo Abe succeeded Junichiro Koizumi as prime minister of
Japan. Abe is as much a staunch proponent as his predecessor of a sturdier
Japan-US alliance. Abe picked Fumio Kyuma as his Defense Agency chief while
retaining Foreign Minister Taro Aso. Meanwhile, in the US, former director of
central intelligence Robert Gates replaced defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
The upcoming meeting will be attended by Kyuma and Aso from the Japanese side
and Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice from the US side.
For Kyuma, the forthcoming two-plus-two meeting will probably mark his
diplomatic debut as a full-fledged defense minister, as the status of Japan's
Defense Agency is set to be upgraded to a ministry on January 9, more than five
decades after its inception.
Takemasa Moriya, the Defense Agency's administrative vice minister, indicated
on Monday that the upcoming meeting will deal with a wide range of issues,
saying, "There are many security issues that Japan and the US face." Topping
the agenda are expected to be North Korea, deployment of the missile defense
system, the realignment of US forces stationed in Japan, and policy on Iraq.
North Korea
On the issue of North Korea's nuclear program, the Japanese and US ministers
will discuss how to run the stalled six-nation talks and reaffirm the need for
close cooperation between Tokyo and Washington on sanctions aimed at Pyongyang.
The nuclear talks, which are hosted by China and also include the US, Japan,
Russia, South Korea and North Korea, stalled in November last year after
Pyongyang pulled out in protest over US financial sanctions. Japan and the US
have taken a tough approach toward North Korea, while China, Russia and South
Korea have advocated a softer approach. Japan and the US have no diplomatic
relations with the Stalinist state led by Kim Jong-il. Abe is a hardliner on
North Korea.
At the upcoming two-plus-two meeting, Japan apparently hopes to reaffirm the
importance of maintaining strong unity and close policy coordination in dealing
with the North Korea nuclear issue. Some people in Japan wonder what changes,
if any, will come in the US policy toward North Korea after the Democratic
Party's winning a majority of both houses of Congress in a recent election, and
John Bolton's resignation as US ambassador to the United Nations, which was
announced on Monday.
North Korea conducted a nuclear test on October 9, triggering international
alarm and condemnation and inviting financial and arms sanctions at the UN. At
the end of that month, Pyongyang agreed to restart the six-party talks. US
assistant secretary of state Christopher Hill and North Korean Deputy Foreign
Minister Kim Kye-gwan met again in Beijing last week but failed to nail down a
date for the resumed talks, apparently because of sharp differences, although
Hill said he still hoped the talks could begin by the end of the year.
Pyongyang reportedly ruled out unilaterally renouncing nuclear weapons without
security guarantees. Hill also reportedly demanded that Pyongyang pledge to
meet four preconditions for restarting the six-way talks, including the
complete closure of an underground facility used for its October nuclear
explosion in Punggyeri in North Hamgyong province, declaration of all its
nuclear facilities and programs, opening of such facilities to inspections at
an early stage by the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the suspension of
operations at an experimental nuclear reactor in Yongbyon that produces
plutonium.
Kim Kye-gwan has said Pyongyang is ready for talks, which he said would be on
an "equal level" after its nuclear test.
Speaking in Beijing after talks with Kim, Hill said it was vital that any
renewed discussions had a real chance of success. "We've got to get North Korea
off of this nuclearization program because, unless they denuclearize, really
nothing is going to be possible."
This stance was echoed on Monday by Shotaro Yachi, Japan's administrative vice
foreign minister, who said that although Japan wants to see a resumption of the
six-way talks by the end of the year, just getting together would be
meaningless and specific results must be achieved.
Missile defense
Pyongyang's recent nuclear test - which followed its July test-firing of
missiles, including a failed test of a Taepodong-2 missile that could reach
some US territory - has significantly heightened concerns among most Japanese.
As a result, Japan has revved up efforts to deploy its missile defense system
in cooperation with the US.
When they met recently on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
forum in Hanoi, Prime Minister Abe and President George W Bush reaffirmed that
the two countries should accelerate cooperation in building a missile defense
system in response to North Korea's nuclear test. Their foreign and defense
chiefs are expected to agree to expedite deployment of interceptors during
their upcoming meeting.
The Defense Agency plans to deploy the first Patriot Advanced Capability 3
(PAC3) surface-to-air interceptor missiles in Saitama prefecture, next to
Tokyo, by next March, as originally planned, and in three other prefectures,
also adjacent to Tokyo, by the end of 2007, instead of the original March 2008
deadline. In late August, the agency requested a more than 50% increase in its
missile defense budget for fiscal 2007, which starts next April.
The budget request of 219 billion yen (US$1.9 billion) is mainly to pay for
accelerating the deployment of PAC3 missiles. The agency's budget request, if
approved by the cabinet and Diet, Japan's parliament, will advance some PAC3
purchases originally planned for fiscal 2008 or later, resulting in an increase
in the number of missiles to be deployed at Self-Defense Forces (SDF) bases in
the four prefectures surrounding Tokyo by the end of 2007.
Still, it will take five more years for the PAC3 deployment program to cover
not only the Tokyo metropolitan area but also other areas
