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Yomiuri Shimbun

The two factors posing the most serious threat to the international community are international terrorism and the existence of nations that may provide terrorists with nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction.

In addition to the war against terrorism that has been conducted in Afghanistan and in other areas, it is inevitable this year that the international community must deal with increased tension related to Iraq and North Korea.

Japan, too, is now urged to take a new approach toward these nations.

First, let us talk about Iraq.

"The international community must stand together to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said in a speech to a New York audience in September during a visit on the first anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

It is highly likely that the United States will go to war against Iraq as early as this month. If the United States does launch an attack, what should Japan do? Whether Japan likes it or not, there will be a time when people will question the real intention of Koizumi's September speech, which stressed the importance of international coordination.

The government has been considering wide-ranging plans for international cooperation, including providing help to refugees, in the event of an attack on Iraq. The major focus has been on how to use the Self-Defense Forces.

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Beefing up logistic support

Should the United States and its allies attack Iraq, the government is considering "indirect support" measures, based on beefing up logistic support to the U.S.-led forces engaged in the war on terrorism in Afghanistan and shouldering some of their burdens. The government has already dispatched an Aegis-equipped destroyer to the Indian Ocean in line with this plan to ensure it will be in place when the attack starts.

Another idea that has surfaced recently is to dispatch Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers to the Gulf under special maritime orders to take actions necessary to protect Japanese tankers in the region.

The government has also been studying a plan to send SDF personnel to help rebuild a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq by enacting a new law.

Japan depends on the Middle East for about 90 percent of its crude oil imports. Instability there could result in a serious crisis in this country.

If the international community takes a stand and backs coordinated action to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, Japan, as a matter of course, should participate and take the steps necessary to support such actions.

However, no in-depth discussions have been held in the Diet or elsewhere, even though the possibility of an attack on Iraq has existed since the issue of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction resurfaced last year. The major reason for the current situation has been the government's evasive attitude toward discussion of concrete issues concerning the attack on Iraq. As seen in the enacting of the Antiterrorism Law, the government has relied solely on last-minute measures.

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Confronting North Korea

As the Iraq crisis gathers momentum, the United States will most likely press North Korea in a more determined way to abandon its nuclear development program.

The North Korean issue is directly connected to the security of Japan. As in the case of Iraq, Japan must make a strong appeal to the international community to unite and confront North Korea.

To do so, Japan has to positively participate in international cooperative actions. This policy should be added to the main pillars of Japan's security policy along with building up the nation's defensive capability and strengthening the Japan-U.S. alliance. The government has to carefully study what Japan can do in this regard from a positive point of view.

The first step that should be taken is to streamline existing laws immediately to permit permanent legislation to enable the dispatch of Self-Defense Forces for international peacekeeping operations.

Such a move would aim at dispatching the SDF for international peacekeeping activities without enacting additional laws if only some conditions are met--such as conformity with U.N. resolutions and the Japan-U.S. security arrangement. The government should no longer rely on stopgap responses to this issue.

International peacekeeping missions constitute "collateral duties," similar to tasks such as transport of Antarctic expedition teams under the Self-Defense Forces Law. However, considering the importance of peacekeeping missions, it is quite proper that the duties be categorized as part of the SDF's main duties--defense of the nation.

It is also vital to review the deceptive interpretation of the Constitution by the Cabinet Legislation Bureau. For instance, it argues that Japan has a right to collective self-defense, but cannot exercise it--an obvious contradiction. It also professes the idea that Japan's logistic support--such as supply and transport--is allowed under the Constitution unless such action constitutes the use of force together with military forces of other countries. These arguments, quite contrary to international common sense, have been used as the grounds for unjustifiably suppressing SDF activities.

It should not be forgotten that security legislation should be formed based on international standards.

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Prepare for terrorism

Globalization is rapidly progressing and thus the threat of terrorism has spread across the world. Domestic arrangements against terrorism must also be coordinated properly.

The optimistic idea that Japan alone is free from terrorism may ironically produce a situation of making the country an easy target for terrorists.

Of prime importance is preventing terrorists from entering Japan by checking and controlling their entries. To do so, it is important for immigration and police authorities as well as other government offices concerned to cooperate in gathering and analyzing information on terrorists.

The most commonly raised and most difficult question is how to protect the privacy of individuals while gathering intelligence.

Of course, unjust interference with human rights should not be allowed. However, it is also necessary for all of us to fully acknowledge that social defense against terrorism rests on the shoulders of each member of the public.

Japan does not have an espionage prevention law under which those who leak classified information concerning security matters are severely punished. Some point out that this situation presents a major obstacle for Japan to receive intelligence support from the United States. If this is true, it may be necessary for us to debate the necessity of enacting such a law.

With these international crises before us, there are a variety of things Japan should do, including early enactment of emergency legislation. Politicians, obsessed with the idea that Japan is always peaceful, should not be allowed to maintain their irresponsible attitude any longer.

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Jan. 6)

Senator calls for talks with North Korea By HANS GREIMEL, Associated Press

Deputy South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Hang-kyung, left, and his Russian counterpart Alexander Losyukov smile during a meeting in Moscow, Sunday, Jan. 5, 2003. SEOUL, South Korea (January 5, 9:41 a.m. AST) - South Korea won a promise from Russia on Sunday to press North Korea over its nuclear program, as Seoul prepared to unveil to the United States new proposals aimed at defusing the crisis with its communist neighbor.

As the South launched a diplomatic blitz, the North opened the door to possible mediation - though it said it would heighten its combat readiness and denounced the United States.

In Moscow - one of the isolated North's few allies - South Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Hang-kyung met with his Russian counterpart, Alexander Losyukov.

Losyukov said after the talks that Moscow and Seoul "agreed to make joint efforts to ease the crisis" and persuade the parties to sit down for talks, though he stopped short of promising Russian mediation.

"The slide to unacceptable actions must be stopped," Losyukov was quoted as saying by the Russian news agency Interfax. "Obviously, our contacts with North Korean colleagues will be intensified."

A separate team of South Korean diplomats also was expected to present a compromise solution to the United States and Japan on Monday and Tuesday, when the three allies meet in Washington to chart a joint strategy on North Korea. Seoul said it will send a top presidential envoy to the United States for more talks later this week.

No details have been disclosed on the South's proposals, but it is expected to involve North Korean concessions on nuclear weapons in exchange for security guarantees.

The current standoff began when North Korea announced last month that it was reviving its main nuclear complex, frozen since a 1994 deal with the United States, and forced out international inspectors at the site. Experts believe the complex can be used to produce several nuclear weapons within months.

North Korea's top military brass vowed in a meeting in the capital, Pyongyang, on Sunday to increase the communist army's combat readiness. A separate statement from the official Korean Central News Agency accused the United States of trying to disarm the North and called the United States the "main obstacle" of Korean reunification.

But North Korea left open the possibility of other countries mediating the dispute - an apparent nod to Seoul's diplomatic attempts.

"If there are countries which are concerned for the settlement of the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula, they, proceeding from a fair stand, should force the U.S. to remain true to the international agreement so that it may discontinue its unilateral behavior," KCNA reported.

Japan and the United States have agreed to pursue a diplomatic end, Japan's Foreign Ministry said after telephone talks between Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi and Secretary of State Colin Powell late Saturday.

After his closed-door meeting with the Korean diplomat, Losyukov said it was important to get all sides to the negotiating table. He said both Moscow and Seoul opposed putting the issue before the U.N. Security Council - where further sanctions on the North could be decided - "before other possibilities for negotiating have been used up."

Before the talks, Kim said Moscow's ties with Pyongyang could provide an "efficient channel for dialogue." Russian President Vladimir Putin has moved to reinvigorate Moscow's strong Soviet-era ties with North Korea.

Losyukov would not elaborate on possible ways out of the crisis, but Interfax quoted unidentified diplomats as saying that the possibility of offering "multilateral security guarantees" to Pyongyang in exchange for nuclear concessions was under discussion.

Kim later said such guarantees would have to include the United States.

Seoul's diplomatic offensive underlines its drive to mediate between its key ally, the United States, and its enemy, North Korea. But brokering a deal won't be easy.

The United States refuses to talk until the North scraps its nuclear programs. North Korea insists Washington must take the first step by signing a nonaggression pact.

Yim Sung-joon, South Korea's national security adviser, will visit Washington from Tuesday to Thursday to meet U.S. officials, then he'll visit Tokyo on Friday and Saturday, the presidential Blue House said.

Top U.S. officials will fly to Seoul later in the week and to Japan, South Korea and China later this month for more talks.

Michigan Sen. Carl Levin, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, urged the Bush administration to talk directly to North Korea to ease the tensions.

"That does not imply capitulation. It does not imply concessions. It just simply means face to face we are going to discuss the differences ... in order to avoid miscalculation," Levin said on "Fox News Sunday."

White House and State Department officials had no immediate comment.

North Korea alarmed the world in October by admitting to a U.S. envoy that it had a secret uranium-based nuclear weapons program, in violation of a 1994 accord. The United States said North Korea already may have two nuclear weapons.

As punishment, the United States and its allies halted oil supplies promised in the agreement. North Korea then announced it would reactivate its older plutonium-based nuclear program, saying it needs to restart a reactor to generate electricity.

One South Korean compromise being considered calls for the United States to resume oil shipments to North Korea, in return for the North abandoning its uranium nuclear development, media reported Saturday.

The North and South have remained divided since the end of the 1950-53 Korea War, which ended not in a peace treaty but an armistice.

The Associated Press Venezuela Jan. 5 —

In a holiday shopping season made dreary by Venezuela's general strike, one item was and remains particularly hot:

The bicycle.

Before the strike, streets in the capital were usually choked with beat-up buses, taxis, cargo trucks and cars, and a gasoline shortage in this oil-rich nation seemed unthinkable.

But the Caracas traffic jams and the gasoline vanished when Venezuela's largest labor union and business chamber began a general strike Dec. 2 to demand President Hugo Chavez' resignation.

While motorists wait to fill their tanks in mile-long lines outside service stations, bike stores have been swamped as Venezuelans adopt an alternate form of transportation.

Frank Gonzalez, co-owner of a store in Caracas' upscale Las Mercedes district, said he's never seen such a spike in year-end sales.

"We are selling three or four times as many bikes as we did last year. The demand is incredible. I've never seen a boom like this," said Gonzalez, smiling. His store was bustling with activity.

"What's happening is great for us, but it's terrible for the country," said Gonzalez's business partner, Mauricio Racchini.

Under normal circumstances, bike sales usually double during the holiday season. But in 2002, sales soared well beyond that, thanks mostly to middle-class Venezuelans with some money to spare from year-end bonuses, store owners said.

"Sales are up 300 to 400 percent this year, almost all of it bikes ... and some in-line skates," said Javier Rodriguez, owner of a sports store selling everything from top-of-the-line mountain bikes to used surfboards.

Biking quickly became fashionable at opposition-led marches and street demonstrations. If protesters aren't walking, they're usually pedaling.

"It's fun protesting and riding at the same time," said Patricia Rago, a 39-year-old economist. "Besides, this is a great way to get exercise."

Some Chavez opponents even have created a group called Cyclists for Freedom. They organize "Cyclemarches" of up to 13 miles with rest stops.

And while the bike enjoys new popularity, cars sales not surprisingly have dropped.

The latest statistics from the Venezuelan Automobile Industry Chamber show Venezuelans bought 111,247 cars from January to October 2002, 33 percent less than the same period a year before.

Statistics for November and December have not been released, most likely another result of the strike.

Then, there are the Venezuelans who have never been able to afford a car. In poor areas isolated rural regions and impoverished city slums bikes have long been a necessity.

No new bicycles gleam in the dusty window displays of a rundown shop in Caracas' La Pastora neighborhood. Inside, customers look over spare parts and a few children's bikes with training wheels.

"Business is up, but it's mostly repairs. People here don't have the resources to purchase new bikes," said Emilio Luque, an employee and cyclist.

Most Venezuelans with formal jobs make the monthly minimum wage of $125.00. Roughly half of Venezuelans work in the informal sector hawking items on sidewalks.

For Freddy Machado, a rusty oversize tricycle is his livelihood.

"I need this to survive. Forget recreation, I don't have the time or energy," said Machado, 59, as he pedaled his trike through the trash-strewn streets of downtown Caracas selling bananas, mangos and pineapples from a large basket.

On the Net: Cyclists for Freedom (in Spanish):

Thousands of President Chavez Supporters Bury Victims of Political Violence in Venezuela The Associated Press

Thousands of government supporters chanted "Justice! Popular justice!" Sunday at a funeral for two men killed at a political rally amid a month-old strike aimed at toppling the president.

Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel and several Cabinet ministers helped carry the flag-draped coffins of Oscar Gomez Aponte, 24 and Jairo Gregorio Moran, 23.

Thousands followed the coffins waving Venezuelan flags, pumping their fists and chanting. On the way to the cemetery, the procession stopped at the Melia hotel, where Organization of American States Secretary-General Cesar Gaviria is staying, leaving a letter denouncing the recent violence.

Gaviria is brokering negotiations between the government and the opposition on ending the general strike against President Hugo Chavez that has crippled the oil-rich country's economy and virtually dried up gasoline supplies.

Opposition leaders blame Chavez's leftist policies for a deep recession and accuse him of trying to accumulate too much power. They want him to resign or hold a nonbinding referendum on his rule, which he says would be unconstitutional.

Gomez Aponte and Moran died during a melee Friday between Chavez supporters, opposition marchers and security officials. Both sides blamed each other for the bloodshed. At least 78 people were injured.

The violence erupted when several hundred presidential supporters threw rocks, bottles and fireworks at thousands of opposition marchers outside the Fuerte Tiuna military headquarters in Caracas.

Police fought to keep the two sides apart, firing rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowd. Gunfire rang out. The government said it came from police, but opposition protesters insisted it came from Chavez supporters.

"These compatriots were slain savagely, and all suspicion falls on police," the vice president said Sunday at the burial.

Two police officers also were wounded Saturday when gunfire broke out during Gomez Aponte's wake. Chavez supporters fired on police after the government blamed the Caracas police for the Friday deaths, police chief Henry Vivas said.

Officers returned fire using rubber bullets and tear gas. The government claimed one woman died, but Caracas Fire Chief Rodolfo Briceno couldn't confirm that.

Chavez tried to take over the city police force which reports to an opposition mayor last fall. The Supreme Court ordered Chavez to restore the force's autonomy, but Rangel said the government was considering retaking it.

He also urged Chavez supporters not to be provoked into violence by opposition leaders, whom the government accused of trying to use the strike to prompt a coup similar to one that briefly ousted the president in April.

"Do not be provoked. These are delicate times," Rangel said.

The strike, which began Dec. 2 and includes some 35,000 employees of the state oil monopoly Petroleos de Venezuela, or PDVSA, has paralyzed oil exports and helped drive international oil prices above $30 a barrel. Venezuela is the world's fifth-largest oil exporter and a top supplier to the United States.

The government has fired dozens of striking oil workers and claims it is restarting production.

On Saturday, a tanker carrying 350,000 barrels of oil left for Cuba, PDVSA President Ali Rodriguez said in an interview published Sunday in the El Universal newspaper. Another ship was being loaded with 600,000 barrels destined for the United States.

Venezuela usually exports about 3 million barrels a day.

Chavez said Friday he might consider imposing martial law to try to break the strike and halt escalating political violence.

Meanwhile, leaders of the Democratic Coordinator opposition movement called on Venezuelans to donate between $1.80 and $3.50 to hold the referendum on Feb. 2 as planned.

The opposition presented over 150,000 signatures to election authorities Nov. 6 to call for the referendum, but the National Elections Council says the Chavez-controlled Parliament hasn't authorized $22 million needed to pay for it.

Chavez, a former paratrooper who was elected in 1998 and re-elected two years later, has challenged the legality of the referendum at the Supreme Court.

Reuters, 01.05.03, 12:39 PM ET

BRASILIA, Brazil, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has suspended all new road works in an effort to save money for social projects, local media reported on Sunday. The measure, which could save 5 billion reais ($1.46 billion), was announced this weekend by Transport Minister Anderson Adauto Pereira.

"I received from the president the judgment of defining clear priorities," Pereira was quoted as saying in daily Jornal do Brasil. "So we decided the priority is the upkeep of the road network." Under the decision, about 60 tenders for the building of new roads will be suspended but old roads will continue to be maintained. Pereira said he may ask the army to help in upkeep of existing roads.

According to this years budget, some 7.8 billion reais was destined to be spent on the road network in 2003, including new roads. The decision was the second cost-saving measure to be announced by Lula's new government since it took office last week. The first was the suspension of the purchase of 12 new fighter jets for $700 million.

Lula, who is Brazil's first president from a left-wing party, has made his top priority a "zero hunger" program to help Brazil's estimated 54 million poor.

With Brazil's finances constrained by strict fiscal targets under a $30 billion IMF loan, Lula needs to save money where he can to both meet spending targets and fulfill his promises of spending on the poor.

His justice minister, Marcio Thomas Bastos, also announced this weekend that the government intends to regularize ownership of shantytown housing, allowing owners of properties in Brazil's vast slums to legally own their dwellings.

While helping the poor in slums, the move could also help the economy as millions in Brazil have no access to credit because they have no formal address. Copyright 2003, Reuters News Service