Asia Wide Campaign – Japan (AWC) is an anti-war organization with chapters throughout Japan. They plan to hold a demonstration at the Japanese Defense Ministry on April 6.
For background information on North Korea’s satellite launch and U.S. and Japanese threats, click here.
We oppose the Japan-U.S. interception and sanction on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s launching of a satellite. We demand a thorough pull-out of U.S. military forces from East Asia and the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and theDPRK as well as the U.S. andDPRK.
The government of Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) announced to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) that it was going to launch a satellite between April 4 and 8. However, the U.S. and Japanese governments challenged the launch and tried to pass a sanction resolution in the U.N. Security Council. Japan, in particular, is flaming tensions among people as if war were to break out between the DPRK and Japan, and planned to intercept the satellite and impose its own heavier sanctions on the DPRK.
We vehemently condemn this dangerous response of the Japanese and U.S. authorities and resolutely oppose the Japanese move of the interception and intensified sanctions.
In the first place, it is obvious that every country has the right to exploration and development in space including satellite launching, whichis expressly defined in the U. N. Treaty on Outer Space adopted in 1966. The DPRK joined the Treaty beforehand and took all necessary measures, like notification to the IMO as well as to neighboring countries. In spite of all these procedures, =both authorities of Japan and the U.S. distorted the process and blamed the DPRK; both insisted the launching is not of a satellite, but the test of a long-ranged ballistic missile, which is a violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718 prohibiting the DPRK’s development of long-ranged ballistic missiles.
According to their unilateral interpretation, satellite launching is technically the same as a missile test , the only difference is the load equipped on the rocket. However, if we apply the same logic to the recent Japanese satellite launching on Tanegashima Island, then Japan must be blamed for its unconstitutional missile test. Thus, Japan has exposed its use of double standards.
Though their aim is presently hopeless and isolated from the international community, shown in the opposition of China and Russia, we never allow such distortions and response from the U.S. and Japan to go unanswered.
We reiterate caution to the provocative policy of the Japanese government. By portraying the DPRK as preparing for an attack on Japan with ballistic missiles, the Japanese government incites people into chauvinistic hostility against the DPRK, and prepares for interception through their missile system in case the satellite falls on Japanese territory and waters. Last March 27, the Defense Minister Hamada issued an order to destroy the DPRK missile, and deployed three Aegis cruisers on the Sea of Japan as he relocated the interceptor missile PAC 3 to Tokyo and the northeastern district of Japan. These are supported by the U.S., which dispatched five Aegis destroyers in the Sea of Japan.
However, there has been no country who has attempted to intercept by missile a foreign satellite even though the satellite might fall on foreign territory. In such cases, an interception would be seen as equivalent to a declaration of war. We can see the reason why the Aso administration of Japan sticks to the tough position of interception. On one hand, Aso aims to further escalate a Japanese military build-up by activating the missile defense system. On the other hand, Aso is trying to sustain his administration just on the verge of collapse by projecting a tough stand against the DPRK and organizing people in a chauvinistic direction.
It is both the U.S. and Japanese governments that consistently heighten military tensions in Asia and the Korean peninsula, and maintain hostile policies against the DPRK. The U.S. holds huge nuclear military power, including ICBMs, and has reinforced its capacity to make preemptive attacks anytime on the DPRK since the ceasefire of the Korean War. Just last month, the U.S. enforced U.S.-South Korean joint military exercises (‘Key Resolve’ and ‘Foal Eagle’), which mobilized more than 50,000 soldiers from both forces.
Therefore, the biggest threat to peaceful, independent reunification of Korea as well as peace in East Asia is the very presence of U.S. military forces supported by the U.S.-Japanese military alliance.
In this context, we demand a thorough pull-out of U.S. forces from the region and condemn the U.S. military re-alignment project coupled with intensified U.S.-Japanesemilitary unification. In particular, we demand the Japanese government abandon the interception and heavier sanctions, and instead, immediately and totally lift the sanctions to normalize the Japan-DPRK diplomatic relations based on the Pyongyang Declaration of the both countries. (March 31, 2009)
