Japan, U.S. prepared for 1st 'prior consultation' in 1994

0 Comments | Asian Political News, July 28, 2003

WASHINGTON, July 21 Kyodo

Japan and the United States prepared for the first ''prior consultation'' in 1994 under their security treaty to discuss an attack on North Korea by U.S. forces in Japan to stop Pyongyang's suspected nuclear arms program, according to Japanese and former U.S. officials.

In June 1994, when tensions heightened over North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons program, President Bill Clinton's administration was considering a U.S. military buildup in the region, including the deployment of more ground troops and fighter jets.

In response to the U.S. move, Japan's government began preparing for a prior consultation ''on the assumption that U.S. forces in Japan might be involved in combat operations'' on the Korean Peninsula, said a Japanese official familiar with the matter.

At the time, Japan was due to hold talks with the U.S. ambassador to Japan, another senior Japanese official said.

Former Clinton administration officials -- Winston Lord, who served as assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs, and Ashton Carter, who was assistant defense secretary for international security policy -- confirmed the two countries were preparing for a prior consultation.

But the planned consultation never took place as tensions eased after former U.S. President Jimmy Carter visited Pyongyang as a special envoy.

Carter's visit paved the way for a 1994 U.S.-North Korean accord known as the Agreed Framework. The pact requires North Korea to freeze and eventually dismantle its nuclear facilities in exchange for the construction of two light-water nuclear reactors for electricity generation and an interim supply of oil.

Under notes exchanged when the security treaty was revised in 1960, the U.S. needs to gain prior consent from Japan through consultation for ''the use of facilities and areas in Japan as bases for military combat operations to be undertaken from Japan.''

But declassified U.S. government documents show there was a ''secret deal'' between the two countries excluding such an attack from being subject to prior consultation.

While confirming there was such a deal, a former U.S. State Department official said the U.S. decided to change the policy, making an attack on North Korea by U.S. forces in Japan subject to prior consultation, following the 1969 summit between Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato and U.S. President Richard Nixon.

At the summit, where the U.S. agreed on the return of Okinawa to Japan, Sato told Nixon that Japan will make a positive and quick response if the U.S. seeks prior consultation on a possible attack on North Korea by U.S. forces, according to the official.