The government is considering a plan to dispatch Japanese engineers and other experts on decommissioning nuclear reactors to North Korea in a bid to assist with Pyongyang's denuclearization process, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
The government hopes to utilize the knowledge accumulated by personnel who have dealt with the March 2011 accident at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings, Inc.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Under the denuclearization process envisaged by Japan, the United States and other nations, North Korea will first declare the entirety of its nuclear weapons and nuclear-related facilities, with the International Atomic Energy Agency verifying the content of this declaration through inspections and other steps. In addition, the United States would spearhead a stage-by-stage dismantling of North Korea's nuclear weapons and the scrapping and removal of its nuclear facilities. The IAEA would continue verification work during this process.
Under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, only the five nuclear powers of the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia can dismantle and scrap nuclear weapons.
However, Japan can contribute to the scrapping and removal of North Korea's nuclear-related facilities, which are assumed to include nuclear reactors and uranium enrichment plants. There are also said to be facilities that have not yet been disclosed.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has already announced that Japan is prepared to cover some of the costs of the IAEA inspections in North Korea. The government hopes to further contribute to the denuclearization process by dispatching engineers and other personnel to North Korea, according to the sources.
Work to decommission the crippled reactors at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant is under way after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake. Personnel have since developed expertise on techniques for such tasks as removing nuclear fuel. Japan also possesses many nuclear power-related facilities, including a uranium enrichment facility.
"Although Japan doesn't possess nuclear weapons, we do have specialist knowledge," a government official said. "This also can be used to support the denuclearization of North Korea."
Kono to visit IAEA chief
Foreign Minister Taro Kono plans to visit IAEA headquarters in Vienna in early July and arrangements are being made for Kono to hold talks with IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano. In addition to discussing how the inspections will proceed and the distribution of costs, Kono and Amano are expected to exchange views on the nature of Japan's prospective personnel contribution.
At the U.S.-North Korea summit meeting held on June 12, both sides agreed on achieving the "complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula." The U.S. government wants to soon begin high-level talks on this issue with the North Korean side.
The United States is willing to quickly wrap up a road map stipulating a concrete process and time frame for denuclearization, but North Korea apparently aims to drip-feed its concessions in a bid to extract an easing of economic sanctions. Their negotiations are expected to have many twists and turns.
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