NORTH-EAST ASIA: Seoul and Tokyo Still Feel Left Out (1) An Inter Press Service Feature

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Nov 10 1994 (IPS) - South Korea and Japan are displaying a new show of goodwill toward North Korea, but political analysts here say officials of the two countries are trying hard not to let their grimaces show through the smiles.

While the U.S.-North Korea nuclear accord last month has been welcomed by South Korea and Japan, both countries are still fuming that they were left out of the talks and Washington struck a deal without consulting them first.

Hardliners in Japan and South Korea say Pyongyang has succeeded in blackmailing the United States using the nuclear threat and are urging their governments not to fall into a trap.

“The North refuses to talks to us but expects Japan to give aid,” says Katsumi Sato, head of Gendai Korea, a monthly on the Korean peninsula. “On no condition must the government support the North.”

Among the terms of the accord signed in Geneva was that North Korea would get a four billion-dollar light-water reactor that would be paid for by Seoul and Tokyo.

In return, Pyongyang promised to freeze its suspected nuclear programme and open up its nuclear facilities to inspections — but only after the new reactor is installed, in five years.

Even moderates in Japan agree that both South Korea and Japan have been sidelined in an issue that affects them the most.

Bradley Martin, an U.S. expert on the Korean peninsula, points out that the situation is difficult to swallow particularly for the Japanese who were hoping the North Korean issue would allow Tokyo to flex its diplomatic muscle in the international arena after following the United States in other international disputes.

And while Tokyo says it is willing to set no conditions for a dialogue with Pyongyang next year, it is also urging Washington to expand the issue of providing nuclear reactors to North Korea into an international consortium with the participation of more countries.

“Japan played a role in the international movement to support the aftermath of Chernobyl,” says a Foreign Ministry official. “I don’t see why the North Korean nuclear programme cannot also be made into an international campaign.”

Japanese officials are expected to discuss the proposal with chief U.S. negotiator Robert Galucci when he visits Japan Friday.