Military

"I’m not going to go into details, but I can confirm that the United States
and Japan shared intelligence both ways on that particular vessel during the
incident," Adm. Dennis C. Blair, commander of the U.S. Pacific Command told reporters
during a roundtable discussion in Tokyo on Monday.

A former high-ranking Japanese officer said it’s good business between allies.

"Absolutely," said Toshiyuki Shikata, professor of national security at
Tokyo’s Teikyo University. Because "Japan does not have spy satellites."

Japanese Coast Guard vessels pursued the rogue ship into international waters on Dec.
22 and exchanged gunfire with crewmembers.

The ship sank. Japanese officials said they believe it was intentionally scuttled to
avoid capture.

Fifteen died aboard the sunken ship, and two crewmembers aboard one of the coast guard
vessels had minor injuries.

Shikata, a former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general, said he believes U.S.
satellites first tracked the ship sailing from North Korea.

That information, provided to Japan’s Defense Agency in code, then was passed to
the Prime Minister’s Office, and from there to Japan’s Maritime Safety Agency,
Shikata said.

Blair told reporters it wasn’t the first time critical information has been shared
with America’s key Asian ally.

"We both have forces and surveillance responsibilities in this part of the world,
and we pass information back and forth both on air and sea and what’s going on the
ground," he said. "So it did go on in this case as it has in other cases. We
plan for it to continue. But I can’t go into who told what when."

Any shortcomings in Japan’s surveillance capabilities are expected to improve in
the next few years.

While the Dec. 22 incident underscored Japan’s need for surveillance satellites,
North Korea’s 1998 test of its Taepodong 1 rocket that flew over Misawa Air Base was
the impetus for Japan’s decision to acquire its own satellites, a government official
said.

Masato Nakamura, research officer for Japan’s new Cabinet Satellite Intelligence
Center of Cabinet Secretariat, said Japan will launch four information satellites between
February and August 2003.

"The satellites will be owned by the Cabinet Secretariat and will be used for
gathering national security information for the self-defense forces, information for
diplomatic purposes, and for natural disasters," he said.

Without satellites, Japan watches its territorial waters using 80 U.S.-designed P-3C
anti-submarine planes, including those based at Atsugi Air Station near Tokyo, Hachinohe
Base near Misawa, and at Naha Base on Okinawa.

According to the Tokyo Shinbun newspaper, a Japanese P-3C involved in the initial
tracking of the ship did not have the capability to transmit photos while airborne.

An MSDF spokesman said after the P-3C found the suspicious ship and took photos of it,
another 90 minutes was needed to return to Kanoya Base to transmit the photos to
MSDF’s staff office in Tokyo.

Japanese newspapers later criticized the amount of time it took for photos of the rogue
ship taken by the P-3C maritime surveillance aircraft to be disseminated for confirmation.

Shikata said the situation is not that simple.

"Japan has a duty to protect secrecy of the information they receive from U.S.
forces," he said.

Despite technology shortcomings, Japan still benefits from its own expansive
intelligence network, said Joshua Spero, a former Senior Civilian Strategic Planner on the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a Council on Foreign Relations member.

Japan has "quite good intelligence apparatuses and very sophisticated
technological capabilities," said Spero, now visiting assistant professor of
political science at Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass.

"However, because America cooperates very closely" with Japan, "we have
to assume that key pieces of intelligence were shared that conceivably contributed to
help."

The sharing of intelligence, Blair said, is not part of stepped-up American
surveillance of North Korean shipping or in general.

"I would say that there has not been an overall increase in our effort. It does
ebb and flow, depending on events, the degree of tension across the DMZ, the time of the
year," he said. "We pretty well keep track of what’s going on around the
area on a constant basis."

Shikata said while Japanese P-3s can pursue suspicious ships for a limited time, U.S.
spy satellites and listening posts at Misawa and in Okinawa are constantly monitoring
communications.

A Defense Agency spokesman who requested anonymity, said there are six listening posts
in Japan.