Press Conference by the Press Secretary 8 December, 1998

1. Vice-ministerial consultation between Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Minoru Tanba and Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Grigory Karasin of the Russian Federation
2. Response of the Government of Japan to the elections in Taiwan
3. Participants in the fourth meeting of the Afghanistan Suppport Group
4. Reports on alleged underground North Korean missile launch sites

1. Vice-ministerial consultation between Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Minoru Tanba and Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Grigory Karasin of the Russian Federation

   Press Secretary Sadaaki Numata: Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. A quiet day I think. I have one brief announcement to make which is that tomorrow, on 9 December, there will be the Vice-ministerial-level consultation between Japan and the Russian Federation on the conclusion of the Peace Treaty. Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Minoru Tanba and his Russian counterpart, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Grigory Karasin, will be taking part in the consultations. This is a follow-up to the Summit which took place in Moscow last month, and there are several things which may very well be discussed. One is that we would be interested in hearing a little more from the Russian side about the proposal that Russia made, with respect to the conclusion of the Peace Treaty. I hasten to add that I am not at liberty to disclose what exactly the Russian proposal is, nor am I at liberty to disclose what the original Japanese proposal was, but I am sure that they will be discussing that. I do expect that they will also be discussing this idea of establishing two committees; one Committee on the Demarcation of National Boundaries, another on Joint Economic Activities on the Four Northern Islands -- we hope that these two committees can start their respective work early next year. They may also be discussing the process of the continuing political dialogue between our two Governments, and in that context, the plan is for Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov of the Russian Federation, to come to Japan some time early next year. Then we have this plan for President Boris Yeltsin of the Russian Federation to visit Japan sometime next year, and it is also possible that Minister for Foreign Affairs Masahiko Koumura may be traveling to Russia sometime between the projected visit by the Russian Foreign Minister, and the visit by President Yeltsin. The timing for these visits are yet to be worked out.

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2. Response of the Government of Japan to the elections in Taiwan

   Q: As you may know, Taiwan's ruling party, the Kuomintang, won impressively in the elections. May I have your comment?

   Mr. Numata: We have been following the reports about the election in Taiwan. I think that the results are well known so I do not have to repeat that. As far as Japan is concerned, our position with respect to our relationship with Taiwan has been made clear on the occasion of the visit of President Jiang Zemin of the People's Republic of China to Japan, which is that -- well, I have repeated this so many times that perhaps I do not have to repeat it now -- our basic position is reflected originally in the Joint Communique of 1972, when we normalized our relations with the People's Republic of China. That position has been basically reaffirmed on the occasion of President Jiang's visit. We expect to continue to have the sort of relations that we have enjoyed with Taiwan since that time, that is our relations at the non-governmental level -- non-governmental working relations, but still flourishing relations, and we hope to continue to have these relationships with Taiwan.

3. Participants in the fourth Meeting of the Afghanistan Support Group

   Q: I looked through the Afghan Support information and there is no Afghan participant there, so how can you discuss help to Afghanistan without anyone from the country being present?

   Mr. Numata: Actually, there will be a briefing on that particular meeting immediately after this press conference, so perhaps the question can best be addressed to the briefer, Director Hitoshi Noda of the Second Middle East Division, who can explain to you in detail. But as a general proposition, there are a number of countries and organizations, including Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) -- I do believe there were two representatives of the NGOs actually operating in Afghanistan, and unless there has been a change of plan, I think that there are two Afghan nationals as these NGO representatives. In any event, there are a number of countries, as well as international organizations and NGOs, who are very much interested in the question of help to the Islamic State of Afghanistan, and I understand that they have had a meaningful meeting. However, the details I will leave to my colleague who will be briefing you later, immediately after this press conference.

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4. Reports on alleged underground North Korean missile launch sites

   Q: This morning NHK had a report saying that North Korea is building three underground missile launch bases. Do you have any comments on this issue?

   Mr. Numata: My first comment is that everyday we seem to be having a new piece of news on the subject. I am afraid my answer to these different pieces of news remains basically the same, which is that although we cannot entirely rule out these possibilities, we are yet to have hard evidence or information about these alleged sites, and so forth. In that sense, we are not in a position to confirm these reports. Now if you ask me further what sort of information we have in our possession, that puts us in a rather delicate position because as soon as we start enumerating the sort of information that we have in our possession, we might unwittingly be disclosing our hands as to what we know and what we do not know. I think you have been covering this sort of game long enough to know that we do not engage in that habit.

   Q: Certainly with any statement by North Korea, a certain amount of it, perhaps most of it, has to be taken with a grain of salt, but gradually over the last week the statements out of North Korea have been growing more and more belligerent. Are you concerned about this?

   Mr. Numata: There have been statements emanating from North Korea on the subject. You used a certain adjective to describe their rhetoric. I might add that their particular vocabulary in that sort of field seems to be much richer than my own. But that is beside the point. That is beside the point. What we would like to say to North Korea is that what is important is not to engage in this sort of intimidatory rhetoric, but to respond sincerely to the concern on the part of its neighbors, and also on the part of the international community, and they can do that by making earnest and sincere responses in the ongoing consultation on the subject with the United States. Any further questions? Well, perhaps we deserve a quiet day for a change.

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