U.N. disarmament confab to open Tues. in Kyoto

Japan Policy & Politics, July 26, 1999

TOKYO, July 21 Kyodo

Japan will host a four-day U.N. conference on disarmament in Kyoto from next Tuesday, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura said Wednesday. The international meeting will gather some 70 government officials, scholars and private-sector experts under the main theme of "disarmament strategy and security concerns in the next 10 years," Komura told a press conference. Foreign Ministry officials said the participants will discuss security situations and prospects of disarmament in the Asia-Pacific region, especially regarding the Korean Peninsula. State Foreign Secretary Keizo Takemi, one of the ministry's two No. 2 political appointees, is scheduled to make a speech at an opening session of the conference. Japan has hosted all 10 past sessions of the conference since it was established in 1989 under an initiative made by then Japanese Prime Minister Noboru Takeshita during a 1988 special U.N. General Assembly session on disarmament.