Asia Times: Security picture shifts as Japan asserts itself



	April 08, 1999	atimes.com

The Koreas

Security picture shifts as Japan asserts itself
By Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO - Reports of North Korean spy ships trying toinfiltrate Japan last week are fueling potentially dramaticchanges in the security and diplomatic picture in Asia, accordingto analysts here.

Already, the incident is spurring widespread concern in Japanabout a threat from North Korea - and is coming in handy inefforts to boost the duties and powers of the Self-Defense Forces(SDF) tasked to protect the nation.

The Maritime Self-Defense Force wasordered to chase away the intruding ships - the first time sincethe defense unit was created in 1954.

By law, SDF actions are strictly limited to defensive actionson behalf of Japan, and the military is barred from firing anything otherthan warning shots except in self-defense.

Japan's Defense Agency chief, Hosei Norata, called Monday for afurther build-up of defense capabilities, including rushingnew legislation through the current parliamentary session that would allowthe SDF to move more swiftly without prior legislative approval intimes of emergency.

The military establishment has seized upon the North Korean threat to back up its arguments for boosting the SDF's role -something that Pyongyang itself is well aware of.

Indeed, North Korea, in a letter to the Japanese government, onSaturday denied its involvement in the March 23 ship incident,calling it ''fiction invented by Japanese reactionaries."

''Such a response from North Korea was predictable,'' said Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Hiromi Nonaka.

The Japanese parliament is currently in the final stage of debate on implementing new Japan-U.S. defense cooperation guidelines thatwill allow the SDF to play a more active role with American troopsin Asian hot spots.

The Japanese media say Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi is tryingto submit to the parliament some emergency legislation, once the pendingbills to cover the updated Japan-U.S. defense guidelines areapproved.

''The government reaction in the parliament is very welcome,'' saysanalyst Kazuhiro Araki, of the Modern Korea Research Institute, whopoints out that the latest episode followed Pyongyang's even more frighteningmissile test conducted over the Sea of Japan by Pyongyang inAugust.

''The recent incident is an indication that the North Koreanthreat is a real one,'' Araki asserts, in a reaction increasinglycommon here these days.

The Japanese daily Sankei Shinbun suggested that themysterious ships, that were chased away by the Maritime SDF wereon a mission of destruction, targeting the Japanese parliament or thecenter of Japanese commercial business.

Quoting unnamed spy specialists, the newspaper reported that while theNorth Korean ships were escaping, some 10 infiltrators enteredJapanese shores along the Pacific Ocean. While other observers saythis is not confirmed, they grant that the ships could have beentrying to drop off spies.

''The situation is tense and must be taken extremelyseriously,'' says Araki. ''North Korean spies have been cominginto Japan to collect military data on South Korea and to enter South Korea onterrorist missions for many years now and Japan has been unable tostop it."

The new security concerns provide leverage for Tokyo to stoprelying so heavilyl on the U.S. for its Asian diplomacy, and to go ahead withbuilding Japan's own bilateral ties with its neighbors, sayJapanese foreign policy experts.

Since its defeat in the Pacific War, ''Japan hasrelied on Washington to conduct its Asian foreign policy,'' writesTokyo University professor Takashi Inoguchi in an opinion piece inNihon Keizai Shimbun, Japan's leading financial daily.

But this reliance has in many ways become unwieldy for Japan inmodern times, analysts say.

Japan has threatened U.S. interests in Asia during the thirdquarter of the 20th century when ''it began to look as if Japanmight be getting inordinately interested in Asia and might pursuea security policy distinct from U.S. policy,'' Inoguchi says.

Inoguchi points out that based on this notion, Japanesepremiers and foreign ministers increased their visits toother Asian nations from only 15 in 1978 to 59 in 1988.

A major development is closer ties with South Korea, Asia'ssecond economic power after Japan, and a country with which Tokyo has uneasyties due to its occupation of the Korean peninsula decades ago.

Obuchi's visit to Seoul on March 20, despite violent studentprotests, in fact ended up being unusually warm and forward-looking.

The leaders released a communique that called for cooperationon dealing with North Korea, with Japan promising to considerloosening its economic sanctions against the Stalinist state if apeaceful dialogue were resumed.

Kim and Obuchi also outlined an economic agenda on economiccooperation, including a bilateral investment treaty that willalso lift import restrictions on all Japanese products from June30 this year.

Some analysts see this as pursuit by both sides of strategicties independent of the American factor in the region. Economist JunkoMizuno, in fact, sees closer economic ties as ''a step closer to afree-trade zone that is in the making between the two countries."

Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, the biggest industrial economiesin East Asia, do not belong to any free-trade grouping. But tomany in the region, deeper economic integration would be yet onemore step toward lessening dependence on the U.S.

(Inter Press Service)

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