Gov't to submit bill enabling Coast Guard to inspect N. Korea cargo+

TOKYO, June 15 Kyodo -
The government has decided to submit to the Diet during the ongoing session a
bill enabling the Japan Coast Guard to inspect North Korean cargo on the high
seas in line with a U.N. Security Council resolution, government sources said
Monday.
''If there are any legal flaws in putting (the U.N. resolution) into practice,
we need to take action so as to deal with it properly,'' Prime Minister Taro
Aso said in reference to the resolution adopted Friday over Pyongyang's recent
nuclear test.
The resolution urges member states to inspect all cargo to and from the North
in their territories, including seaports and airports, if they have
''information that provides reasonable grounds'' to believe that such cargo
contains nuclear and missile-related items.
It also calls for member states to inspect suspicious North Korean-related
vessels, with the consent of the flag state, on the high seas. The adoption is
to punish the nation over the nuclear test carried out May 25.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura suggested that the government is looking
to lay out the basic outline for the bill by the end of this week.
As soon as the basic outline is compiled, the government ''aims to submit the
bill...and to get it enacted smoothly,'' the government's top spokesman said.
''I understand that we can consult with the (main opposition) Democratic Party
of Japan (on this matter).''
The current Diet session runs through July 28.
The government initially planned to draw up a bill allowing the Self-Defense
Forces, instead of the Coast Guard, to undertake such cargo inspections, but
apparently changed direction after some lawmakers of the ruling bloc of the
Liberal Democratic Party and the New Komeito party voiced opposition to the
idea, the government sources said.
Defense Minister Yasukazu Hamada has indicated that inspections on North Korean
cargo will be conducted in Japan's home waters and that the Coast Guard is
capable to carry out the task.
Natsuo Yamaguchi, chief of the New Komeito policy research council, has
insisted that inspections should be chiefly carried out by the Coast Guard.
The government apparently determined that the Coast Guard should primarily
handle the inspections so it can avoid a situation in which any possible
conflicts with North Korea turn violent, according to the sources.
Japan will aim to enact a special law extending the scope of the Coast Guard's
activity beyond Japanese territorial seas, as the existing Japan Coast Guard
Law already allows the guard to carry out inspections on ships in territorial
waters.
But the government believes that the North's nuclear test is not enough to
determine the situation a ''contingency,'' a condition that would enable the
SDF to conduct cargo inspections on the high seas, the sources said.
==Kyodo