Abe’s aide advocates Japan’s possession of missiles

September 14, 2017

TOKYO- A ruling party adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe underscored on Wednesday the necessity of Japan considering possessing ballistic and cruise missiles given the progress in North Korea's missile and nuclear development.

Katsuyuki Kawai, the Liberal Democratic Party's special foreign affairs adviser to Abe, also LDP president, told U.S. lawmakers and others in Washington that "time has come for Japan to seriously examine the idea of possessing medium-range ballistic missiles and cruise missiles."

People who had talks with Kawai on the day included US Rep. Ami Bera (D-California) and Hudson Institute President Kenneth Weinstein.

Several US lawmakers and experts supported his opinion, Kawai told reporters.

Kawai's comment was made as a North Korean government panel threatened to sink Japan into the sea with a nuclear bomb, accusing it of taking part in US efforts for the adoption of the latest UN Security Council sanctions resolution against Pyongyang, the Korean Central News Agency reported Thursday.

In a spokesman's statement issued on Wednesday, the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee said Japan "zealously joined in the US racket for sanctions," according to the state media of North Korea.

It then said, "The four islands of the (Japanese) archipelago should be sunken into the sea by the nuclear bomb of Juche."

"A telling blow should be dealt to them who have not yet come to senses after the launch of our ICBM (intercontinental ballistic missile) over the Japanese archipelago," the statement said.

Meanwhile, Japan urged North Korea to abide by UN. Security Council resolutions during a brief meeting of diplomats from the two countries in Switzerland on Tuesday, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

The meeting took place between Hiroyuki Namazu, deputy director-general of the Japanese ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, and the deputy chief of the North Korean Foreign Ministry's North American Affairs Department.

Namazu strongly protested against North Korea's provocations, including nuclear and missile tests. He also pressed for an early return of Japanese citizens kidnapped to North Korea.

The Japanese ministry did not disclose how the North Korean official responded.

The diplomats met on the sidelines of an international conference on Northeast Asia organized jointly by Switzerland's Foreign Ministry and the Geneva Center for Security Policy, a private think-tank. Jiji Press