ASEAN+3 Summit Meeting

Monday, November 4, 2002

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Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, visiting Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia to attend the ASEAN+3 (Japan, China and the Republic of Korea) Summit and associated meetings, took part in a trilateral meeting with Premier Zhu Rongji of China and Prime Minister Kim Suk-Soo of the Republic of Korea on the morning of November 4, 2002, prior to the ASEAN+3 Summit. At the meeting, Prime Minister Koizumi explained his policy of approaching the normalization talks between Japan and North Korea with the issues of the abduction of Japanese nationals and nuclear development as the highest priority. The leaders confirmed the recognition that the issue of nuclear development posed a threat to the stability not only of the Korean peninsula but of East Asia as a whole, and agreed to aim for a resolution on this issue by peaceful means. In addition, the Prime Minister visited Wat Taing Karsang in Phnom Penh, laying flowers at the memorial to the late Superintendent Haruyuki Takada, who participated in United Nations peacekeeping operations and was killed in the line of duty under fire from an armed group in his role as a civilian police officer for the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC) in 1993. At the ASEAN+3 Summit held in the afternoon, the leaders welcomed the Japan-North Korea normalization talks, and confirmed that they will demand the abandonment of the nuclear development program in a visible manner by North Korea and strengthen their solidarity toward the eradication of terrorism. In the meeting, Prime Minister Koizumi expressed the intention of accepting a total of 400 trainees in order to support measures against terrorism in the ASEAN region. After the summit meeting, Prime Minister Koizumi visited the Royal University of Fine Arts of Cambodia, and attended an official dinner hosted by Their Majesties King Norodom Sihanouk and Queen Norodom Monineath Sihanouk in the evening.