Diet panel chief to demand gov't admits to secret Japan-U.S. pact+

TOKYO, July 10 Kyodo -
Taro Kono, the chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs
Committee, told Kyodo News on Friday that he intends to demand the government
admits to the existence of a secret Japan-U.S. pact that has outlined the
handling of the U.S. forces' nuclear weapons since 1960.

Kono, a lawmaker of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, made the remarks after
meeting former Vice Foreign Minister Ryohei Murata, who in various media
interviews testified that the pact existed, on Friday in Kyoto.
''I have judged from the testimony of Mr. Murata that there was a secret
accord,'' Kono said. ''The Foreign Affairs Committee will not tolerate the
government's repeating the answer that there was no secret deal.''
His remark indicates that the lower house will demand the government correct
its remarks to parliament denying the existence of the deal.
But Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone has said, ''There was no secret accord.
We do not intend to make a probe into this again.''
Murata, under his own name, told Kyodo News and other media late last month
that it was a ''secret duty'' of vice ministers to inform foreign ministers of
the secret accord.
Under the deal, Japan agreed, when it revised the security treaty with the
United States in 1960, to allow the U.S. warships to carry nuclear weapons on
such occasions as when they make port calls at Japanese ports.
Kono told Kyodo News that Murata told him so on Friday.
==Kyodo