Cheney likely to visit Japan, China in mid-April

Japan Policy & Politics, March 15, 2004

WASHINGTON, March 11 Kyodo

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney is likely to visit Japan and China in mid-April to hold talks with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on Iraq's reconstruction and North Korea's nuclear arms program, U.S. government and diplomatic sources said Thursday.

The Japanese and U.S. governments are now in the final stage of arranging a date for his visit to Japan, and Cheney is also considering visiting China, the sources said.

If realized, this will mark Cheney's first trip to Japan since he took office in January 2001.

Cheney is expected to meet also with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda and Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi during his stay in Tokyo, the sources said.

Cheney had initially planned to visit Japan, South Korea and China last April, but the trip was postponed after the U.S.-led coalition forces launched an invasion of Iraq in March.

At the planned series of talks in Tokyo, Cheney is expected to thank Japan for its dispatch of Self-Defense Forces troops to Iraq for reconstruction and humanitarian assistance and seek support for a U.S.-proposed initiative to promote democratization and economic reforms in the Middle East, the sources said.

Also high on the agenda will be how to resolve the standoff over North Korea's nuclear ambitions through six-party talks, they said.

The second round of the six-party talks took place in Beijing in late February, bringing together China, Japan, North and South Korea, Russia and the United States for the first time since last August.

The talks ended without a breakthrough, with the parties only agreeing to continue the dialogue process by holding the third round of talks by June and creating a preparatory working group.

Cheney is known to have a hard-line stance on North Korean issues within the administration of President George W. Bush.