NAPSNet Daily Report 11 October, 2001

Recommended Citation

"NAPSNet Daily Report 11 October, 2001", NAPSNet Daily Report, October 11, 2001, https://nautilus.org/napsnet/napsnet-daily-report/napsnet-daily-report-11-october-2001/

 
CONTENTS

I. United States

1. US-ROK Military Talks
2. PRC on Domestic Terrorism
3. Taiwan Official at APEC
4. US-PRC Human Rights Talks
5. US Military Exercises in Japan
II. ROK 1. Anti-War and Remilitarization Campaign
III. Japan 1. Japanese Logistical Support for US
2. Japanese Role in Humanitarian Aid
3. Rescue of Oversea Japanese
4. SDF’s Use of Weapons
5. US View on Japanese Logistical Support
6. Japanese Reaction to US Military Action
7. US Naval Movements from Japan
8. US-Japan Relations
9. Salvage of Ehime Maru

I. United States

1. US-ROK Military Talks

Reuters (Paul Eckert, “US ENVOY TO TALK WAR COOPERATION IN SOUTH KOREA,” Seoul, 10/11/01) reported that US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs James Kelly was due in the ROK on Thursday to discuss ROK’s offers of support for the US-led campaign in Afghanistan and policy coordination toward the DPRK. Kelly is slated to meet ROK President Kim Dae-jung as well as the foreign affairs, defense and unification ministers. In Seoul on Thursday demonstrators held a second day of peaceful rallies, with about 500 mostly religious figures calling for an end to the US and British bombardment of Afghanistan and criticizing ROK support for the campaign. The ROK Defense Ministry has offered to send 120 medical, 170 maritime transport and 150 air transport soldiers to back the US-led campaign. It will also donate US$1 million worth of relief supplies for Afghan refugees.

2. PRC on Domestic Terrorism

Reuters (Jeremy Page, “CHINA CALLS FOR SUPPORT AGAINST ISLAMIC SEPARATISTS,” Beijing, 10/11/01) reported that the PRC called for international support on Thursday for its campaign against Islamic separatists as part of a global war on terrorism. PRC Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi said ethnic Uighur militants agitating for an independent state of East Turkestan in the northwestern region of Xinjiang had links with international terrorist groups. The call puts the US in an awkward position ahead of the first meeting between PRC President Jiang Zemin and US President George W. Bush at an Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Shanghai next week. Sun said, “Several East Turkestan organizations have openly expressed in their mission statements that they would resort to violent means in anti-China activities. These acts have also incurred immense public resentment among Chinese people, so the fight against East Turkestan is also a part of the international campaign against terrorism.” Sun said there was evidence that Uighurs had links with international terrorist groups and had carried out bombings, assassinations, kidnapping and robberies in the PRC and abroad. It was not immediately clear why Sun referred to “East Turkestan organizations” when the PRC usually refers to independence activists in Xinjiang as “splittists.” However, some diplomats said the PRC may be trying to associate Uighur militants with Islamic extremists in Afghanistan and to differentiate them from independence activists in Tibet and Taiwan. Zhu Feng, director of the International Security Program at Peking University, said, “I believe that this is a very important change in China’s government policy. Stressing the East Turkestan issue is in fact saying that China’s stance against separatists in Xinjiang is linked with the U.S. fight against terrorism. In the beginning, China’s Xinjiang issue drew a lot of criticism from the United States over human rights. China wants the Western world to know about China’s threat from terrorism and to let the U.S. accept this.” Hong Kong’s Ming Pao daily said Urumqi authorities had captured 210 religious extremists and separatist leaders. The semi-official China News Service said local officials had called on religious leaders to help preserve “Xinjiang’s stability and the motherland’s unity.”

3. Taiwan Official at APEC

South China Morning Post (Jason Blatt, “SURPRISE CALL-UP FOR TAIWAN APEC ROLE,” Taipei, 10/11/01) reported that Taiwan officials confirmed Thursday that it would send a vice-president Li Yuan-zu to this month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit in Shanghai. Li, 78, who retired in 1997, was said to have been given the green light by the PRC. His selection, reported in Taiwan newspapers on October 10, marked the first time Beijing has agreed to let someone without an economic planning background attend the leaders’ summit. Li said Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian had asked him to attend the summit during a visit to his home in August. Some observers expressed surprise that the PRC would agree to allow a former vice- president to attend an APEC meeting, especially on PRC soil. Taiwan newspapers suggested that since the war on terrorism would be the main issue this year, Li – a criminal law expert – was considered to be a suitable choice.

4. US-PRC Human Rights Talks

Reuters (“CHINA, U.S. RE-OPEN HUMAN RIGHTS DIALOGUE,” Beijing, 10/11/01) reported that PRC Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi said Thursday the PRC and the US have re-started a human rights dialogue that have been stalled since 1999. Sun said, “As of October 9, China and the United States started a dialogue on human rights issues in Washington. The two sides held wide- ranging and in-depth talks on questions of common concern in the field of human rights on the basis of equality and mutual respect.” US Secretary of State Colin Powell and PRC Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan agreed in late September their countries would resume human rights talks in Washington in early October. Sun characterized the talks as “sincere and constructive” and said both sides wanted to strengthen dialogue and cooperation and keep up human rights exchanges.

5. US Military Exercises in Japan

The Associated Press (Eric Talmadge, “US MILITARY DOES EXERCISES IN JAPAN,” Aboard USS Essex, 10/11/01) reported that approximately five thousand US Marines and five Navy ships began a major exercise this week off the coast of Okinawa in southern Japan, amid heightened security caused by concerns over possible terrorist attacks. Over the next two weeks or so, hundreds of Marines on two other ships were to be launched on amphibious vehicles for simulated shore assaults. The exercises began October 10. Rear Admiral Paul S. Schultz, commander of the amphibious force of the US Seventh Fleet, said, “Unlike the continental U.S. forces, we are required to be ready to support contingency operations all year long.” Schultz stressed that the exercises, held twice a year, are the same now as they have been in the past.

II. ROK

1. Anti-War and Remilitarization Campaign

Joongang Ilbo (Staff reporter, “RALLY URGES KOREA NOT TO ASSIST US,” 10/10/01) reported that 756 citizens groups, including the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions and People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, urged the ROK government on October 10 not to aid the US attack on Afghanistan and insisted that the US stop its retaliatory war. About 300 people gathered at the Myongdong Cathedral, and groups that did not send members added their names to an antiwar declaration. The statement said, “Terrorism cannot be justified in anyway; neither can any retaliation war be. The war killing innocent civilians of Afghanistan should be stopped immediately.” The demonstrators also opposed the remilitarizing of Japan through its participation in the campaign against Afghanistan.

2. DPRK Food Aids

Joongang Ilbo (Kim Hee-sung, “GOVERNMENT AND MDP TO FINALIZE FOOD AID THURSDAY,” 10/10/01) reported that the ROK Ministry of Unification will hold a special meeting with the ruling Millennium Democratic Party on Thursday. ROK Minister Hong Soon- young plans to attend the meeting to explain the details for the upcoming family reunion event, second round of Inter-Korean Economic Cooperation Promotion Committee meeting and the follow up measures for the Inter-Korean Cabinet meeting. The two sides that have already agreed to propose 300,000 ton of rice and 100,000 ton of corn to assist the DPRK decided to closely coordinate on the issue with the opposition Grand National Party later on.

3. US Force in Korean Peninsula

Korea Times (staff reporter, “REINFOCING U.S. FORCES IN PENINSULA GOING WELL, GENERAL SCHWARTZ SAYS,” 10/09/01) reported that general Thomas Schwartz, commander of the US Forces Korea and ROK-US Combined Forces Command (CFC) said on October 8 that the process of building up of armies in Korean Peninsula is proceeding smoothly in line with the advance of an air craft carrier to the Middle East. Schwartz expressed his gratitude to ROK National Defense Minister Kim Dong-shin for its full support for the US military action on terrorism. CFC is maintaining peace in the region and that the army is well prepared for it. Schwartz also added that the US air raid against Afghanistan is proceeding well limiting its targets to airport, ground radar based and anti-air raid facilities. Kim responded that the actions are justified in the aim to uproot the terrorism and punish the Taliban Regime that refuse to hand in Osama Bin Laden. However, the dispatch of ROK’s combat troops to the US was not addressed. Kim went on to inquire on the potential date for the end to the strike, expressing concern over its negative effect on the world economy. Answering that it would not be easy to predict, Schwartz said the US aware of the issue.

4. Japanese Premier Visit to Seoul

Korea Herald (Hwang Jang-jin, “JAPANESE PREMIER TO VISIT COLONIAL-ERA PRISON IN SEOUL,” 10/11/01) reported that ROK diplomatic sources said on October 10 that Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi plans to visit the Seodaemun Prison History Hala museum in Seoul, a former a Japanese prison where Korean independence fighters were incarcerated, tortured and killed during the colonial period from 1910 to 1945. It will mark the first time a Japanese leader has visited a place in ROK associated with Japan’s harsh rule of the Korean Peninsula. ROK officials have said the Japanese prime minister will tour a place symbolizing Korea’s independence movement, in a gesture to allay Koreans’ anger over Japan’s approval of controversial history textbooks and his August visit to the Yasukuni Shrine. The official said Koizumi is expected to make an apology for Japan’s colonial rule and express his condolences for Korean colonial-era victims, as he did during his visit to Beijing on October 8.

5. Failure of Secret Fishing Talks

Korea Herald (Shin Yong-bae, “SEOUL, TOKYO FAIL TO RESOLVE FISHING DISPUTE SECRET TALKS”, 10/11/01) reported that ROK officials said on October 10 that secret talks between the ROK and Japan over Japan and Russia’s move to ban ROK fishing in waters near Russian-held southern Kuril islands have failed. The talks were arranged in Tokyo on October 9 at the request of the ROK government. The failure clouded the prospects for a breakthrough in a working-level meeting of fisheries officials between the two countries that opened in Tokyo for a two-day run to discuss fishing conditions in each other’s EEZs and the ban of third countries from fishing in the disputed waters. Alerted by the move to ban ROK fishing near the controversial islands, the ROK government hurriedly decided to dispatch a delegation to Russia this weekend to be led by the vice minister of maritime affairs and fisheries.

III. Japan

1. Japanese Logistical Support for US

The Asahi Shimbun (“MINSHUTO FIRMS UP SDF STANCE,” Tokyo, 10/05/01) reported that the Democratic Party of Japan (Minshuto) will oppose any loosening of restrictions on the use of weapons by the Self Defense Forces (SDF) in the Diet debate on a bill designed to respond to the September 11 US attacks. Minshuto leader Yukio Hatoyama has not outwardly opposed the dispatch of SDF personnel abroad. However, he has said, “they should be kept at a distance from combat zones.” In addition to weapons-use provision, Minshuto will also ask government to put a one-year expiration date on the bill and require prior approval by the Diet before any SDF troops are sent abroad. He also wants a ban on the transport of weapons and ammunition by SDF personnel. Minshuto has come out in favor of other support activities not involving the backup of US troops, including refugee relief efforts and search-and-rescue missions for missing soldiers of other nations. However, the party has still not decided on whether it will call for geographic limits on where SDF personnel can be sent to conduct such activities.

The Asahi Shimbun (“ANTI-TERRORISM BILL RAISES QUESTIONS, SAY LAWMAKERS,” Tokyo, 10/06-7/01) reported that Friday’s submission to the Diet of a bill designed to combat terrorism had even members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) shaking their heads in wonder. LDP Upper House member Yoichi Masuzoe, a political scientist specializing in international politics said, ” I will go along with the decision made by the party, but there are too many problems with the bill.” While Masuzoe favors the overseas dispatch of SDF personnel, he is also dissatisfied. He said, “Because the government has avoided a review of its constitutional interpretation, it is bankrupt in terms of arguments for the bill. From the standpoint of the enemy, transporting the weapons and transporting food is the same thing. The situation becomes strange because of a series of phony explanations.”

2. Japanese Role in Humanitarian Aid

The Japan Times (“JAPAN ANNOUNCES $120 MILLION IN AID FOR AFGHANISTAN REFUGEES,” Tokyo, 10/05/01) reported that Japan announced Thursday that it is ready to provide up to US$120 million to the UN in preparation for the worst-case scenario in the coming six months. Separately, Japan will directly provide the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees with US$6 million to meet the emergency request. As for Japanese bilateral assistance to Pakistan, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda announced that Japan will unconditionally provide another US$3 billion to Pakistan. In addition, US$7.5 million will be granted to Pakistan to help it deal with Afghan refugees. The top government spokesman added that Japan would also reschedule Pakistan’s debt payments to Japan, which amount to US$6.46 million.

3. Rescue of Oversea Japanese

The Asahi Shimbun (“RESCUE TO BE PART OF MSDF MISSION,” Tokyo, 10/06-7/01) reported that Japan was caught off guard because the legislation to address Japan’s anti-terrorism response as approved by the Cabinet on October 5 makes no specific provision for dispatching Self-Defense Forces (SDF) vessels. Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said the ships are to gather intelligence in the area to support the US response to the September 11 terrorism. However, Japanese Defense Agency Director-General Gen Nakatani caused a stir on October 5 when he said Maritime Self-Defense Forces vessels dispatched also be used to rescue stranded Japanese. He said that “research and analysis” are the primary mission in dispatching SDF vessels abroad under the law that establishes the Defense Agency, adding that it would be difficult to rescue people without knowing where they are.

4. SDF’s Use of Weapons

The Japan Times (“ASO PUSHES TO GIVE SDF EXTRA FIREPOWER,” Tokyo, 10/05/01) reported that Taro Aso, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party’s Policy Research Council, said that the Self- Defense Forces (SDF) should be allowed to use heavy firearms to protect troops participating in any US-led antiterrorism operation. He also said, “Our opponents are not legitimate government soldiers. Rather, they are terrorists, and there is no guarantee that they will abide by the Geneva Convention which stipulates protection of the injured during wartime. [Under such circumstances], the government must avoid making SDF personnel to go to places deemed dangerous without arming them with sufficient weapons.”

5. US View on Japanese Logistical Support

The Asahi Shimbun (“U.S. WANTS FLEXIBILITY FOR SDF,” Tokyo, 10/05/01) reported that the US repeatedly called for flexibility in what Japanese Self-Defense Forces (SDF) can do to support US strikes against terrorists, long before the bill on the touchy matter was sent to the Diet. US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told Japanese officials that he was concerned there were already move to limits what supplies the SDF could transport to US forces deployed to retaliate for terrorism. Sources in both Japan and US said that there are a number of reasons the Bush administration wants Japan to allow flexibility in its contribution. One is that US cannot yet reveal to Japan what kind of military operation it is planning against the terrorists, nor how long it will take. US officials are also concerned that the restrictions on the geographic area in which support activities can be carried out would narrow the scope of possible SDF activities. Because Armitage is seen by many as being knowledgeable about Japan, his statements are expected to influence debate in Japan. His comment to Japanese Ambassador Shinji Yanai that Japan should “show the flag” in supporting US efforts is said to have been the impetus behind the move to make use of the SDF.

6. Japanese Reaction to US Military Action

The Japan Times (“DPJ CONCERNED ABOUT ATTACK CASUALTIES,” Tokyo, 10/09/01) reported that Yukio Hatoyama, leader of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), said October 8 that he understands the US and British airstrikes against targets in Afghanistan but expressed concern over civilian casualties. Hatoyama told that the attacks were based on the US individual right to self-defense and that he has a certain levels of understanding toward them as part of a campaign to eradicate terrorism. He also said, “This situation had not been unforeseeable. We should not jump to the conclusion that the bill should be passed quickly, even without sufficient discussion. We need to take time.”

7. US Naval Movements from Japan

The Asahi Shimbun (“U.S. WARSHIPS DEPART OKINAWA,” Naha, 10/09/01) reported that the US Navy amphibious ship Essex, dock landing ships Germantown and Fort McHenry, and the minesweeper Patriot left White Beach, Okinawa for an undisclosed destination on October 8.

8. US-Japan Relations

The Japan Times (“U.S. RELATIONS NEED REVIEW: TANAKA,” Tokyo, 10/06/01) reported that Japanese Foreign Minister Makiko Tanaka said October 5 that Japan should rethink and clarify its role in the half-century-old security alliance with the US. She said, “The 50th anniversary of the signing of the Japan-US security treaty is a big turning point, and we cannot simply continue in the current situation. As the world’s No.2 economy, Japan must rethink its role to carry out diplomacy independently. It is an issue that requires political decision, and we need to conduct transparent deliberations in the Diet as well as gain support from the public and understanding from neighboring countries such and China and South Korea.”

9. Salvage of Ehime Maru

Kyodo (“U.S. SALVAGE SHIP LIFTS, MOVES EHIME MARU,” Honolulu, 10/07/01) reported that the US Navy on October 5 succeeded in lifting and moving of Ehime Maru, paving the way for the vessel to be salvaged, according to navy official. Once the navy succeeds in bringing the vessel up to shallow waters, divers are expected to be dispatched to retrieve the remains of the nine people who were lost when the Ehime Maru was sunk, five to seven of whom are still believed to be inside the ship.

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Gee Gee Wong: napsnet@nautilus.org
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Timothy L. Savage: napsnet@nautilus.org
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Kim Hee-sun: khs688@hotmail.com
Seoul, Republic of Korea

Hibiki Yamaguchi: hibikiy@dh.mbn.or.jp
Tokyo, Japan

Rumiko Seya: rumiko- seya@geocities.co.jp
Tokyo, Japan

Hiroya Takagi: hiroya_takagi@hotmail.com
Tokyo, Japan

Peter Razvin: icipu@glas.apc.org
Moscow, Russian Federation

Yunxia Cao: yunxiac@yahoo.com
Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

Dingli Shen: dlshen@fudan.ac.cn
Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

John McKay: John.McKay@adm.monash.edu.au
Clayton, Australia

 


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