Did South Korea know about Japan-U.S. Nuclear arms pact?
TOKYO (MCT) — Japan indicated to South Korea the existence of a secret 1969 Japan-U.S. agreement on allowing U.S. nuclear weapons in times of emergency into Okinawa after its reversion to Japan, shortly after the pact was struck, according to a Japanese researcher.
According to a paper by Somei Kobayashi, a researcher at Osaka City University, Japan told South Korea of Tokyo's understanding that U.S. nuclear weapons would be allowed to be brought into post-reversion Okinawa during emergencies.
In December, the family of the late Prime Minister Eisaku Sato announced the existence of a document concerning the secret agreement, which was reached in 1969 between Sato and then-U.S. President Richard Nixon as part of negotiations for the return of Okinawa to Japan. The document shows the United States intended to remove all nuclear weapons from Okinawa by the time of its reversion, but also would require the re-entry of nuclear weapons into Okinawa during emergencies.
The latest findings in the paper, based on official South Korean documents, likely will reinforce the credence of the secret document.
According to Kobayashi's paper, presented in the February 2010 issue of the monthly magazine Chuo Koron, after Japan and the United States reached agreement on Okinawa's return to Japan during a November 1969 summit meeting, then-Ambassador to South Korea Masahide Kanayama explained to then-South Korean President Park Chung Hee the Japanese government's interpretation that nuclear weapons would be allowed to be brought into Japan in an emergency.