Press Conference 27 April 2004

1. Dispatch of Mr. Taro Nakayama, Special Envoy of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan
2. Japan-Jordan Joint Training Program for Power Network System in Iraq
3. Question concerning alleged report by the US Department of State
4. Question concerning train incident in Ryongchon, North Korea
5. Question concerning governing body of Iraq

1. Dispatch of Mr. Taro Nakayama, Special Envoy of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan

   Press Secretary Hatsuhisa Takashima: Good afternoon and thank you for coming to the briefing. Today, I would like to make two announcements before I take questions.

   The first one is the dispatch of Special Envoy of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan to the United Nations (UN) headquarters. The Government of Japan decided to dispatch former Minister for Foreign Affairs Taro Nakayama to the United Nations headquarters in New York as a Special Envoy of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan. Mr. Nakayama departs Tokyo today and meets with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Special Adviser to the Secretary-General Lakhdar Brahimi on 29 April to exchange views on the Iraq situation. This is the second visit of Mr. Nakayama to the UN headquarters as a Special Envoy since December last year. He is expected to have a wide range of discussions with Mr. Annan and Mr. Brahimi on the role of the United Nations in Iraq to bring about progress of the political process in Iraq and desirable form of international cooperation to assist Iraq.

   Related Information (The Issue of Iraq)
   
2. Japan-Jordan Joint Training Program for Power Network System in Iraq

   Mr. Takashima: The second announcement is on the Japan-Jordan joint training program for the power network system in Iraq. As part of its humanitarian and reconstruction assistance for Iraq, the Government of Japan, in cooperation with Jordan, will conduct a power network system training program from 4 May in Amman, Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

   A total of 40 persons from the Electric Power Ministry of Iraq will participate in the program which consists of four terms up to mid-July and of three courses: Power System Analysis, Control System and Communication System. The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) of Jordan to which Japan has provided technical cooperation in those sectors, will carry out the program.

   Japan attaches importance to co-ordinated actions with Arab countries in extending humanitarian and reconstruction assistance to Iraq. With the National Electric Power Company of Jordan, an organization to which Japan has extended technical cooperation, as an implementing agency on the Jordanian side, this program is designed to enable Japan to effectively utilize for its assistance to Iraq, the assets already accumulated through its technical cooperation to Jordan.

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3. Question concerning alleged report by the US Department of State

   Q: Regarding North Korea, in the papers today, it mentioned that the Department of State of the United States of America is considering or is going to designate North Korea as a terrorist supporting nation and is going to include the abduction issue as one of the reasons. What is the Japanese Government's response on this?

   Mr. Takashima. We are aware that the Department of State has been listing North Korea as a terrorism assisting nation on its report to Congress. It is an American action, and we have no comment on that.

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4. Question concerning train incident in Ryongchon, North Korea

   Q: Regarding the explosion in Ryongchon in North Korea, a number of non-governmental organizations (NGO) have been pushing for early normalization of relations between Japan and North Korea considering collecting emergency funds for North Korea. I was wondering, first of all, what is the Government's view on this and could these activities conflict with government policy to pressure North Korea?

   Mr. Takashima. We feel sympathy to those who suffer from this tragic accident in North Korea. The Government of Japan has decided to provide humanitarian emergency assistance in the form of medical kit which will be worth approximately US$100,000 through the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). The Government of Japan also made it clear that if it is so requested by the United Nations agencies, we are willing to provide additional assistance to North Korea through the United Nations. We do not have any control on the activities of non-governmental organizations. However, if there is any effort done by the private sector including NGOs to give a helping hand to the North Korean people to cope with this tragic incident, that is on their own and we have no say one way or the other.

   Related Information (Emergency Assistance for the Train Explosion Disaster in North Korea)
   
5. Question concerning governing body of Iraq

   Q: There is a Washington Post report saying that the US Government has been discussing with the United Nations on the possible abolition of the existing Transitional Administration Law in Iraq to establish a new form of governing body. Does the Japanese Government have any comment or is it aware of the American effort to do such kind of things?

   Mr. Takashima. There is constant exchange of information on the issue of Iraqi reconstruction as well as political process between the Governments of Japan and the United States. However, I am not in a position to make any comment on the report by the Washington Post except to say that one of the main purposes of dispatching former Foreign Minister Mr. Nakayama is to have discussion with the United Nations to find out what sort of assistance Japan can extend to the United Nations to realize the new Security Council resolution which would assist the formulation of a new government body in Iraq and also to accelerate the effort of reconstruction and rehabilitation of the nations. Japan has been closely monitoring the discussion between the United States Government and the United Nations headquarters on those sorts of issues. We would like to see the UN Security Council new resolution passed which would in turn allow the handover of authority from the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) to the Iraqi interim government to be done as scheduled.

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