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Nuclear warheads report rattles Japan

By Shane Green, Herald Correspondent in Tokyo
June 21 2003

Japan's vulnerability to an attack by North Korean missiles may have increased dramatically, with reports yesterday that Pyongyang has developed several nuclear warheads for its ballistic missiles.

The United States unofficially told Japan in March that, for the first time, it had confirmation that North Korea had produced the warheads, Japanese media quoted officials as saying.

US intelligence has long believed North Korea possesses one or two crude nuclear weapons, and Pyongyang has recently openly admitted its nuclear capability. But the development of nuclear warheads - the ability to deliver nuclear weapons - would be a big advance.

It would also raise the stakes in the crisis over North Korea's nuclear arms program, which has shown few signs of resolution despite intensive diplomatic efforts.

The news is particularly unsettling to Tokyo. Pyongyang is believed to have deployed 100 of its Rodong missiles, which - with a range of 1300 kilometres - are capable of hitting Japan.

In 1998, Japan's vulnerability to a missile attack was brought home when North Korea test-fired a Taepodong missile over Japan, landing in the Pacific Ocean.

The Japanese Government was characteristically cautious about the reports yesterday.

"We have received various kinds of information," the Prime Minister, Junichiro Koizumi, said. "I'm not supposed to reveal it in detail."

But he said Japan was "not in a position to make a conclusion" that North Korea had developed nuclear warheads.

The Defence Minister, Shigeru Ishiba, said he could not provide definite answers about North Korean warheads.

The chief cabinet secretary, Yasuo Fukuda, said Japan did not have firm evidence, and "I believe that the United States probably does not either".

The report was first carried yesterday by the Sankei newspaper, which quoted Japanese and US sources.

They claimed that North Korea had developed several warheads, weighing between 750 and 1000 kilograms.

There was no information on how the US had obtained the information on the warheads, nor how reliable it was, given the closed nature of North Korea and consequent lack of reliable intelligence about its nuclear activities.

Last October, North Korea admitted to a clandestine weapons program in contravention of a 1994 agreement with the US and its allies to end its nuclear ambitions in return for energy aid.

The threat of North Korean nuclear missiles will further add to the push in Japan for an upgrade in the country's defensive capacity.

With only limited defences against a missile attack, Japan is involved in talks with the US on joining its missile defence system.

As a first step, Tokyo is examining the possibility of a ground-to-air Patriot Advanced Capability-3system.

It is also looking at deploying a missile interception system based on its sophisticated Aegis destroyers.




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