Getting back to the Bomb

Today is the start of a Kwansei Gakuin University's 学際 gakusai (school festival), a 6-day event extending through the weekend and all the way to monday. There are a lot of holidays at Kwansei, and I'm making use of this one to go to the beach tomorrow with a bunch of friends.

Yes it's November. Yes it's warm enough to swim. So there.

Let's talk about the DPRK again. At first glance things look promising, with the Six Party Talks purportedly restarting "soon". China, America and North Korea have already held one informal meeting yesterday and are promising to get down to business. Kim Jong-Il is doing his best to look repentant following mounting foreign pressure that looks ready to stove in the hull of his regime - this chiefly means that the blockade on luxury items that Kim uses to buy the support of domestic power blocs (i.e. generals) is putting a dangerous strain on his resources.

But Japan's foreign ministry looks set to blunt the precision instruments of multilateral diplomacy.

Japan cannot accept North Korea's return to the six-party talks on its nuclear program if it comes to the negotiating table as a country possessing nuclear weapons, Foreign Minister Taro Aso was quoted as saying Tuesday.

While Japan welcomed the prospect of a new round of talks, it "does not intend to accept North Korea's return to the talks on the premise that it is a country that owns nuclear weapons," public broadcaster NHK quoted Aso as saying. (Mainichi Shinbun)

The Foreign Ministry has always been a bit of a wildcard in Japanese politics. Koizumi, the previous Prime Minister, enlisted his cabinet in attempts to reign in autonomous tendencies within the ministry in 2001 or so, but largely failed. It's therefore important to emphasize that this opinion is not held in the highest echelons of elected government.

Meanwhile, Kyodo News agency quoted Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki as telling reporters late Tuesday that the six-party talks were the best framework to resolve the standoff over North Korea's nuclear program.

That doesn't necessarily make the remarks less worrying though. Especially when you put it in the context of, say, this article, also from Mainichi Shinbun: Top LDP policymaker says possession of nuclear arms permitted under Constitution.