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After a five-year hiatus, the Japanese government is reviewing its crisis management plans in preparation for contingencies on the Korean Peninsula, which include evacuating Japanese from South Korea and accommodating refugees from North Korea, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported Sunday.
"To prepare for contingencies in North Korea in the wake of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's ill health, Japan plans to re-examine the process of evacuating the Japanese (from South Korea) and an emergency alert system,¡± the daily said. ¡°Due to the difficulty of sending Self-Defense Forces to Korea, the Japanese government has worked out a plan to use Japanese civilian aircraft and rely on the U.S. military for the evacuation of the rest."
In a speech in the city of Saga on Saturday, prime minister-in-waiting Taro Aso stressed the need to prepare for unexpected developments on the Korean Peninsula. He also said after he is inaugurated as prime minister, he will review foreign and security issues surrounding North Korea.
In 1993, when North Korea withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Japanese government worked out a crisis management system for sudden developments in Korea. According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, at that time the Japanese government envisaged police and Self-Defense Forces jointly dealing with the contingencies, on the assumption that more than 100,000 refugees would migrate from the peninsula to Japan.
In 1999, the Japanese government staged an exercise by police and the Self-Defense Forces for the evacuation of the Japanese residents from South Korea. In 2003, when North Korea posed a threat with missiles, it updated the crisis management plan.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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