Japan to join PSI exercise in S.Korea

By Wang Zhaokun

Japan is going to send an escort ship and a PC3 patrol aircraft to join the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI) exercise, Seoul-based Chosun Ilbo said Wednesday.

The US, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore will also participate in the exercise that is to be held at Busan Port and nearby between October 13 and 14.

The United States and South Korea held a flurry of war games recently around the Korean Peninsula, where tensions have been high due to the March sinking of a South Korean warship.

The US and South Korea have said North Korea should take the blame for torpedoing the warship, while Pyongyang vehemently denies the allegation.

Liu Jiangyong, vice president of the Institute of International Studies at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times that this is the first time that Japan's Maritime Self Defense Force will take part in an exercise in South Korean territorial waters.

"If Japan participates in the exercise, it will further lead to regional instability and bring uncertainties to the situation," Liu said.

Seoul and Tokyo are also mulling an agreement on the mutual supply of goods and services on the condition of taking part in UN peacekeeping operations, the report says.

Japan hosted the PSI Maritime Interdiction Exercise in October 2004 off the coast of Tokyo Bay. And that was the first time such an exercise was held in Asia.

The PSI, created in 2003 at the proposal of the US government, aims to stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their related materials.

Members of the PSI abide by a Statement of Interdiction Principles, according to which participating counties try to intercept suspected weapons materials and enact laws to facilitate seizure of such materials.

However, critics of the PSI argue that its principles are in violation of the international law that guarantees freedom of the seas.

Meanwhile, Japan is reviewing its defense policies constrained by a pacifist constitution as an advisory panel to Prime Minister Naoto Kan is expected to make recommendations soon for the first update in five years to the National Defense Program Guideline (NDPG).

The NDPG was expected to be updated in 2009, but the update was delayed due to the change of government. The latest update of the NDPG was completed in 2004 with the Japan-US alliance as the core of Japanese security.

Agencies contributed to this story