ABSTRACT
The Japanese plutonium program is a source of suspicion, but Motoya Kitamura emphasizes the irrelevance of the civilian plutonium program to any potential weapon program, saying, ‘with or without the plutonium program, Tokyo could acquire nuclear weapons, if it developed the political will’. The Basic Law of Atomic Energy of 1955 stipulates that research, development and use of atomic energy shall be limited to peaceful uses only under the principles of democratic and autonomous management and openness of its results. The Association of South East Asian Nations Regional Forum is a useful framework to promote security cooperation in East Asia, and it is necessary to exploit this framework to improve the security situation in North-East Asia. In December 1995, ten nations in South-East Asia signed the Treaty on the South-East Asia Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone. The United States pulled its nuclear weapons out of South Korea prior to the declaration on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.
