Korea nuke issue: Won't attack first, says Japan

I / Singapore May 30, 2009, 13:04 IST

Japan would not initiate any hostilities against North Korea but is ready to defend itself, its defence minister said today amid international tensions over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.

Defence Minister Yasukazu Hamada, speaking at a high-level security forum in Singapore, said Tokyo would be transparent with its military hardware purchases in order to prevent any misunderstanding with neighbours.

"We have mentioned that North Korea is a threat because of what has happened in the past but unless there are other countries moving to us, we will never start an action as such," Hamada told delegates at the annual Shangri-La Dialogue on security.

"In Japan, we have various and numerous constraints and internationally, we have also made clear that we do not use force in order to resolve conflict situations," he said.

He told the forum Tokyo was looking at a range of weapon procurements including the F-22 fifth-generation fighter aircraft but stressed these were "only for the defence of the country as such."

"So we would be making clear our intentions so that there is no room for misunderstanding and we will make sure that we will explain our intentions very clearly to other countries," he added.

Kim Jong-Il's North Korean regime said it staged its second atomic bomb test on Monday and renounced the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953.