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NORTH KOREA'S LAUNCH OF MISSILES 'SERIOUS PROVOCATION': PRESIDENT

ROC Central News Agency

2006-07-11 19:39:15

    Taipei, July 11 (CNA) President Chen Shui-bian said Tuesday that North Korea's test-firing of seven missiles over the Sea of Japan July 5is considered a serious provocation to both Japan and the United States.

    President Chen made the remarks while receiving a Japanese delegation of parliamentarians at the Presidential Office.

    The president said the government expressed its concern shortly after the missile launch, saying that Pyongyang's defiant acts have also posed a serious threat to peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula as well as to the whole of Asia.

    He said he shared the sentiments of the Japanese, noting that China test-fired two waves of missiles in the run-up to Taiwan's presidential election in March 1996, with the nearest missile landing in seas just 55 kilometers from Taiwan. Undeterred by the intimidation, however, the Taiwanese people successfully concluded the island's first popular presidential election, Chen said.

    He also said he supports the inclusion of security in the Taiwan Strait as one of the strategic goals shared by the U.S. and Japan.

    He said that Taiwan and Japan are trading and security partners that share common values, and that it is beneficial Japan's ruling party is strengthening exchanges and cooperation with all of Taiwan's sectors.

    He noted that Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, considered a top candidate to succeed Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, have developed exchanges with Taiwan's government as well as with leaders across the party spectrum.

    Following in the steps of Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng's visit to Japan, main opposition Kuomintang Chairman Ma Ying-jeou is also currently touring Japan for a six-day visit, the president said.

    Since the two countries are partners in security, it is understandable that Japan is concerned about the long-stalled arms procurement plan in Taiwan, the president said, referring to the proposed package of a squadron of 12 P-3C aircraft, eight diesel-fueled submarines and six batteries of Patriot PAC-3 missiles, which has been blocked by the opposition-dominated legislature for two years.

(By Lilian Wu)

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