TOKYO
Japan will consider imposing sanctions against North Korea if the
secretive Stalinist state, at the center of a nuclear standoff,
fires a ballistic missile, a report said Sunday.
If a North Korean missile fell on Japanese territory or waters,
the Tokyo government would convene an emergency meeting and consult
the United States on counter-measures, the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper
said.
The report did not specify what counter-measures could be taken.
But Japanese officials said last month Tokyo could ask US forces
to launch a pre-emptive strike on North Korean missile bases if
Pyongyang was preparing to fire missiles at its territory.
Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said it would be "within
the legal framework of self-defense" if Japan asked the US to
launch a pre-emptive attack if it had "no defense
alternative."
Even if a missile landed outside Japanese territory, Tokyo would
still consider imposing sanctions such as freezing aid, the leading
daily quoted an internal government paper as saying.
Sanctions could be justified as a missile launch breaches a
declaration signed by North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-Il and
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi at a historic summit in
Pyongyang last September, the report said.
The declaration said North Korea expressed its intention to
continue its moratorium on missile tests beyond 2003.
Japan has twice been alarmed by North Korean missile launches.
In 1998, Pyongyang sent shockwaves around the world by
test-firing a suspected Taepodong-1 missile, part of which flew over
Japan's main island of Honshu and into the Pacific.
Earlier, North Korea launched into the Sea of Japan a Rodong-1
missile with a range of 1,300 kilometers (810 miles) in 1993 after
testing two types of crude Scud missiles.
The government document said Tokyo would demand Pyongyang halt a
missile launch when preparations for firing had been confirmed by
such signs as troop movements, according to the daily.
At the same time, the Japanese public would be warned of an
imminent missile test, the document added.
On Friday, a leading Japanese defense analyst said North Korea
might test-fire this year a long-range Taepodong-2 missile which
could be capable of reaching parts of the continental United States.
Hideshi Takesada, a professor at the National Institute for
defense Studies, said the hardline Stalinist state had conducted new
missile tests every five years.
A Taepodong-2 missile has a range estimated between 3,500 and
6,000 kilometers (2,190 and 3,750 miles).
According to South Korean defense ministry data, North Korea is
currently testing Taepodong-1 missiles with a range of 2,500
kilometers (1,550 miles) and is also developing longer-range
Taepodong-2 missiles.
North Korean ambassador to China Choe Kim-Su said last month
Pyongyang might resume missile tests after Washington cut off fuel
shipments late last year over North Korea's secret nuclear weapons
program.
2003-02-10 / Agence
France-Presse /
