TASK SETTING

TASK 1 (Proposal for a Northeast Asia NWFZ)

              For a long time, there have been discussions on the interpretation of article VI of the NPT, which allows nuclear disarmament to be subordinated to a treaty for “general and complete disarmament.” Such interpretations often had the intention of regarding the abolition of nuclear weapons as a task for the distant future. In setting the thirteen steps to implement article VI, the New Agenda countries clarified that the obligation to negotiate in good faith on effective measures for nuclear disarmament and the responsibility to carry out negotiations in good faith toward a treaty for “general and complete disarmament,” were related, but to be pursued separately. In the background of this was the 1996 Advisory Opinion by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ruled clearly that there exists an obligation to accomplish negotiations for nuclear disarmament under Article VI.

              Here, it is necessary to reaffirm the fact that although nuclear disarmament should be given priority, it is in fact only one part of international security efforts. In particular, increasing the credibility and strengthening existing treaty frameworks on other WMDs – i.e. the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) – can contribute greatly to the elimination of nuclear weapons.

              Looking at Northeast Asia, it is important to improve the current situation where the DPRK is not a State party to the CWC. Also, there is a need for fair and levelheaded discussions with regard to delivery systems of WMDs. For example, it is not justified for Japan to unilaterally demand that the DPRK abandon its missile development program, when US naval ships are home-ported in Japan with the capability of launching 500 Tomahawk cruise missiles in all. Moreover, there is an urgent need to formulate a protocol to strengthen the verifiability of the BWC, and all the State parties need to be involved in strengthening the process.

              In the Northeast Asian region, if a proposal were made to establish a NWFZ, it would be possible to incorporate discussions on WMDs other than nuclear weapons into the talks.

EVALUATION

              As for TASK 1, the Japanese government continuously emphasizes the threat of the DPRK’s WMDs and missiles, as well as that posed by Chinese nuclear weapons. It calls upon its people to counter those threats by taking military counter measures such as missile defense or the using US nuclear umbrella.

              However, this item in the NPT 13 steps reaffirms the particular importance of the elimination of the threats by strengthening arms control and disarmament treaties. Based on this idea, the GOJ should make efforts to improve the security environment in the region through arms control and disarmament treaties that actively engage the very states considered threats to Japan.

              However, the GOJ has hardly made any efforts in this area. This should be criticized as a major weakness of Japan’s diplomacy in Asia. On the contrary, in fact, Japan moved rapidly to enact the Anti-Terrorism Special Measures Law and to send Maritime Self-Defense Forces (MSDF) ships to conflict areas in support of US forces. This has been extremely harmful to the regional environment in view of cooperative security in East Asia.

              Therefore, we give it an E grade on this item.