The second Nuclear Security Summit, which is being held in Seoul, is aimed at preventing nuclear terrorism.

Top leaders and Cabinet members from 53 countries are participating in the summit, along with representatives from the United Nations and three other international organizations.

The summit is considering what specific measures must be taken to prevent potential nuclear menaces from threatening world security.

The leaders taking part in the summit must press North Korea, a country with a nuclear weapons development program, to cancel its plan to launch a long-range ballistic missile. Pyongyang has announced it will launch an Earth observation satellite next month.

In a meeting with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak on Sunday, U.S. President Barack Obama naturally called on North Korea to abandon the missile launch and abide by international norms.

According to the Blue House presidential office in Seoul, Chinese President Hu Jintao also was quoted as saying to Lee that Pyongyang should “give up the launch and focus on improving the lives of ordinary people.”

North Korea’s planned launch is in blatant disregard of U.N. Security Council resolutions banning the use by Pyongyang of ballistic missile technology.

If carried out, the launch also will run counter to an agreement reached between Washington and Pyongyang last month that called for a moratorium on long-range missile launches by North Korea.

In pretending to launch a satellite, Pyongyang insists this falls outside U.N. resolutions and the U.S.-North Korea accord banning its long-range missile launches.

The failure of the international community to condemn North Korea at this juncture would be tantamount to approving its missile development under the guise of launching a satellite.

The planned launch presumably would increase the range of North Korea‘s missiles and their targeting accuracy.

This means North Korea’s missiles would present an even greater threat to Japan, which is already within the range of Pyongyang‘s medium-range Rodong missiles.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda must act appropriately to ensure that North Korea does not launch its so-called satellite.

In a session of the House of Councillors Budget Committee, Noda said he wanted participants at the Seoul summit to act together. He added that he would join other summit participants “to work to pressure” Pyongyang to abandon the missile launch. We strongly hope the prime minister follows through on this.

However, compared to the big fish from such countries as the United States and China, who have engaged aggressively in bilateral diplomatic activities with various countries, Noda, who arrived in South Korea Monday night, is a minnow.

Although the prime minister had to attend the session of the upper house Budget Committee on Monday at the committee’s request, no prime minister should be hampered from performing his diplomatic duties by Diet business.

A plenary session of the upper house unanimously adopted a resolution calling on North Korea to abandon its planned missile launch. However, for such a resolution to have any international effect, diplomacy is imperative.

North Korea has announced it has entered a preparatory phase for the launch, indicating it will take place as planned in mid-April.

There is a possibility the missile will pass over the Nansei Islands in waters west of Kyushu.

In preparation for a contingency in which there is a danger of the main rocket or missile fragments falling on Japanese territory, the government must waste no time in ordering the Self-Defence Forces to shoot it down.


Editorial
The Yomiuri Shimbun

(Asia News Network)