Abstract
The North Korean Nuclear Crisis is one of the most prominent security issues in Northeast Asia. North Korea represents a particular thorny problem, in that it combines two potentially explosive issues: confrontation on the Korean peninsula; and nuclear proliferation. The US has identified North Korea– and to a lesser extent, tension between China and Taiwan in the late 1995 and early 1996– as the most immediate threat to stability in the region. As a result, there has been much debate among US policy-makers and those of its allies, South Korea and Japan, over how to deal with the North Korean nuclear crisis.
This article examines the reaction of Japanese policy-makers to the North Korean threat and clarifies much of the concern about, and criticism of, Japan’s approach to this security issue. Japan’s perception of the threat is more sophisticated than outside commentators often realise; its policy-makers view the North Korean issue not simply as a military one, but also a political issue that affects the future of US alliance and domestic stability. In fact, for Japanese policy-makers the complex nature of the North Korean security challenge marks the post-Cold War breakdown of the traditional lines of demarcation between issues of external and internal security.
Investigation of the attitudes of Japanese policy-makers towards the North Korean crisis demonstrates that much of the speculation about Japan’s nuclear option is unfounded. In addition, and contrary to some analysts’ arguments, Japan has not taken an exclusively reactive stance towards events. It has been quietly proactive in its attempts to cooperate with other powers and to develop its own policy options to deal with the North Korean security problem.
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