Nudged by the US, Japan will host multinational sea exercises in October as part of an initiative to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction, even though analysts say the move could hurt talks with North Korea, an unspoken focus of the drill.
The Foreign Ministry said yesterday that Tokyo's hosting of the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) exercise would mark the first time it has been held in Asia.
The US-led initiative, launched last year to prevent the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons-related materials, has angered North Korea, which is in a stand-off with Washington and its allies over its nuclear ambitions.
Yesterday's announcement comes at a time when Japan is trying to set talks with North Korea on the fate of Japanese abducted by Pyongyang decades ago and is considering whether to resume stalled talks to establish diplomatic ties.
It also follows US pressure on Tokyo to play a bigger role in the initiative, launched by US President George W. Bush.
"If you want to put this in the context of Japan getting past the wartime constitution ... it is Japan emerging as a serious player," a US official said last week, referring to Tokyo's efforts to stretch the limits of its pacifist constitution.
While some analysts have said that Pyongyang is unlikely to harden its stance towards Tokyo given its hopes of winning badly needed economic aid from Japan, others have warned that North Korea may delay talks.
Tokyo has said that it will offer full-scale financial aid to North Korea once diplomatic ties are established.
"Given its past behavior, North Korea may delay the timing of talks with Japan," said Lee Jong-won, a Rikkyo University professor who specializes in North Korea.
"It needs to show both internationally and domestically that it will not give in to pressure."
But Lee said a delay would not mark a change in North Korea's basic policy of seeking normalization of ties with Japan and that this probably was why Tokyo decided to go ahead with the drill.
Japanese media have said talks between Japanese and North Korean officials may be held as early as next week in Beijing, although Japan's top government spokesman said yesterday that no dates have been fixed.
North Korea has repeatedly criticized the US-led PSI, also participated in by Russia, Australia, Singapore and many European nations including France and Britain.
"The US seeks to deter the DPRK [North Korea] from having any economic ties and trade with other countries and thus isolate and strangle it," Pyongyang's KCNA news agency said last week.
China, which is not a core member of the PSI, has questioned the legitimacy of intercepting ships and aircraft, and some legal experts also say such action may be illegal.
Japan sent a Coast Guard vessel to the first interdiction exercise held in the Coral Sea off Australia's northeast coast last September, and has sent military and Coast Guard observers to various other PSI drills.
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