North Korean nuclear test unjustifiable: JCP Ichida

Japan Press Service Co., Ltd. is the only news agency providing information of progressive, democratic movements in Japan

North Korean nuclear test unjustifiable: JCP Ichida

The North Korean Foreign Ministry on October 3 issued a statement that the country will conduct a nuclear test. The statement that for the first time officially expressed North Korea's intention to conduct a nuclear test did not specify when the test will take place.

The statement said that the country will take "a new measure to bolster the war deterrent for self-defense," using "U.S. moves to isolate and stifle the DPRK" as a pretext.

Asked by the press to comment on North Korea's statement, Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Ichida Tadayoshi on the same day said that a nuclear test by any nation can never be justified.

Ichida stated, "A North Korean nuclear test, if conducted, will run counter to the 1992 North-South Joint Declaration on the Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, the 2002 Japan-DPRK Pyongyang Declaration, and the 2005 Joint Statement of the Fourth Round of the Six-Party Talks, and will bring about new hostilities and tensions in Northeast Asia. Thus, it can not be justified."

Ichida continued, "The JCP strongly calls on North Korea to comply with these international agreements by not conducting a nuclear test, and to go back to the Six-Party Talks without delay."
- Akahata, October 4, 2006