AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
South Korea Tuesday accused Japan of returning to its past militarism by suggesting a possible pre-emptive strike on North Korea, in a sharp split over the response to Pyongyang's missile tests.
South Korea, at a meeting of top officials, renewed its condemnation of Pyongyang's missile launches last week but was unsparing in its criticism of the “arrogant” former colonial power Japan.
“It is a serious development that Japanese cabinet ministers have made a series of comments that justify a possible pre-emptive strike and the use of military power against the Korean peninsula,” said Jung Tae-Ho, spokesman for President Roh Moo-Hyun.
“We cannot but maintain vigilance as it has unveiled Japan's expansionist nature,” he said in a statement after a meeting of Roh and his top aides.
Japanese officials have said they are assessing whether a pre-emptive attack on North Korea in case of an immediate threat would violate the country's pacifist 1947 constitution.
The statements come amid intense debate in Japan on how far to deviate from the country's staunch post-World War II pacifism, but there is little possibility of Tokyo launching a strike in the near future.
South Korea has been reconciling with the North, but its relations have recently soured with Japan, largely over how Tokyo remembers its bloody 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean peninsula.
“The government has made clear that North Korea's missile tests are a provocative act that seriously undermine peace and stability in Northeast Asia,” the presidential statement said.
“But we will strongly deal with arrogant and reckless remarks by Japanese political leaders who try to amplify a crisis on the Korean peninsula with provocative remarks and to make an excuse to build their country into a military giant,” it said.
Japan on Monday met with South Korean Ambassador Ra Jong-il to complain about earlier remarks from Seoul accusing Tokyo of worsening tensions.
Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Shotaro Yachi said he had told Ra: “We are not overreacting, and it is not productive to issue such a statement.”
North Korea, whose official media regularly denounce Tokyo, in 1998 fired a Taepodong-1 missile that flew over Japan into the Pacific Ocean.
Its latest long-range missile, the Taepodong-2, was launched last Wednesday but quickly crashed into the Sea of Japan, known here as the East Sea.
South Korea on Monday also called in Japanese ambassador to Seoul Shotaro Oshima to protest a Japanese draft resolution at the United Nations to punish North Korea, a report said.
“The Japanese-led draft resolution is based on Chapter Seven of the UN charter that can be interpreted as having military action as an option against North Korea,” Vice Foreign Minister Lee Kyu-Hyung told Oshima, according to the JoongAng Ilbo.
“The resolution's invocation of Chapter Seven of the UN charter could undermine peace and security in and around the Korean peninsula and the safety of South Koreans,” he was quoted as telling him.
South Korea, which is not on the UN Security Council, in 2000 launched a “sunshine policy” of reconciling with its longtime Northern adversary.
It has vowed to maintain talks with the North, although it suspended crucial food and fertilizer aid to its impoverished neighbour in response to the missile tests which defied weeks of international appeals.
South Korea has broken off top-level dialogue with Japan over Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's repeated visits to Yasukuni shrine, which honors 2.5 million Japanese war dead including 14 top war criminals from World War II.
Jun Kwanwoo Contribyted to this report from Seoul
