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Japan envoys to

visit Beijing,

Seoul on

security

TOKYO: Japan will send special envoys to China and South Korea to explain Tokyo's policy on a new security framework announced after this week's U.S.-Japan summit, government spokesman Seiroku Kajiyama said on Friday. "We will seek understanding of the U.S.-Japan declaration from our neighbouring states by sending special envoys to China and South Korea," Kajiyama told a news conference. In their declaration issued on Wednesday, President Bill Clinton and Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto announced that the United States would maintain its force level of 100,000 troops in the region and that Japan would take on a bigger supportive military role in the region. On Thursday, China warned against any Japanese military build-up that could arise from the declaration. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Shen Guofang said he did not believe the declaration was aimed at China and that the biggest cause for concern would be from any attempts by Japan to strengthen its own Self-Defence Forces. "We urge Japan to move with caution," Shen said. South Korea's Foreign Ministry also aired concerns about any enlarged regional role to be taken by the Japanese military. South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted Foreign Minister Kong No-myong as saying he was concerned Tokyo's expanded military role would destabilise Northeast Asia. China and Korea suffered heavily under Japanese aggression and brutal colonial rule before 1945 and they have been the most vocal critics of Japan's reluctance to come to terms with its militarist past. Some key issues remain unresolved, such as compensation for "comfort women" who were forced to serve as sex slaves for the Japanese Imperial Army troops and Chinese and Korean labourers forcibly brought to Japan in the last years of World War Two.-Reuter