Gov't spokesman raps DPJ for scuttling N. Korea cargo inspection bill

TOKYO, July 15 Kyodo - Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura on Wednesday criticized the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan for forcing a North Korean cargo inspection bill to be scuttled, questioning its potential ability to govern.

Kawamura was referring to the move by the DPJ-led opposition bloc to stall all
Diet proceedings following the approval the previous day of a censure motion
against Prime Minister Taro Aso in the House of Councillors, which the
opposition camp controls.
''This is an important bill advanced within the framework of international
cooperation,'' Kawamura told a press conference, saying Japan has played a
leading role in having the U.N. Security Council pass a resolution punishing
North Korea for its May nuclear test.
The bill in question is based on that resolution and aimed at enabling law
enforcement authorities to inspect suspicious cargo from and to North Korea on
the high seas and elsewhere.
Kawamura noted that DPJ leader Yukio Hatoyama has said all along that the bill
is important. ''It is a question of whether we can say (the DPJ) has the
ability to govern if he runs away from this (bill),'' he said.
Aso has said he views the bill as a key legislative item that must be passed
before the dissolution of the House of Representatives planned early next week
for a general election.
He has criticized the DPJ, saying Japan's inability to implement measures as
called for in the resolution would reflect negatively in the eyes of the
international community.
The bill, which is designed to enable inspections of banned cargo, including
ballistic missile-related material, cleared the lower house on Tuesday and was
sent to the upper house for deliberation.
But because the DPJ and its allies have forced the Diet to effectively end its
session with the latest stalling tactic, the bill is all but certain to die
with the dissolution of the lower house.
On Wednesday, the Liberal Democratic Party asked the DPJ to have a meeting of
secretaries general between the two parties to find a way out of the
parliamentary gridlock and get the legislation enacted during the current
session.
But the DPJ declined the request on the grounds that the censure motion has
been approved. Although largely symbolic, such a motion is rare and has
provided the opposition camp with reasons to block parliamentary proceedings.
DPJ Secretary General Katsuya Okada said his party did not see the need to
arrange such a meeting, saying Aso had already given up on the bill anyway
before the opposition camp took the latest action.
Aso ''had judged once that enacting this legislation is impossible when he
decided to dissolve the lower house on Tuesday,'' Okada told reporters. ''It is
like, what (is he saying) now?''
A senior DPJ official said separately the party can discuss the inspection
measure after it takes power because the measure is acceptable to it.
The ruling coalition of the LDP and its junior partner, the New Komeito party,
has suffered successive losses to the DPJ in local elections in recent months,
raising the chances that the DPJ may wrest power from the long-governing LDP in
the general election slated for Aug. 30.
If enacted, the legislation would allow the Self-Defense Forces to take
necessary action in the event the Japan Coast Guard could not handle situations
alone because, for example, crew members of a suspicious ship are heavily
armed.
But with little prospect of the measure being adopted during the current
parliamentary session, the Defense Ministry has said the SDF will work on
intelligence-gathering as part of its routine operations.
==Kyodo