Japan may stop aid to Yemen

The Times of India ^ | December 12 2002 | AFP

[knighthawk]

TOKYO: Japan said Thursday it might consider freezing economic aid to Yemen to protest North Korea's shipment of Scud missiles to the Middle Eastern country.

"As a matter of course, our country for its part believes that such things as weapons of mass destruction, which could become the cause of conflicts, should not proliferate," top government spokesman Yasuo Fukuda said.

Fukuda told reporters the Japanese foreign ministry was preparing to convey to the Yemeni government "what may be something close to a protest" over the missile shipment.

"I don't know what it contains or how it will be expressed," Fukuda said. But Japan's relationship with Yemen over official aid "may be taken into account."

"The foreign ministry is to examine what Japan should do" in response to the missile shipment, Fukuda added, when asked whether Japan would consider sanctions including suspending aid, which in the year to March 2001 totalled 21 million dollars.

The diplomatic flurry follows by a day a US decision to release the shipment of 15 Scud missiles fitted with conventional warheads from North Korea, amid vehement protests from Yemen that it had bought the missiles for its own defence.

Acting on US intelligence information, two Spanish navy vessels detained the ship off the coast of Yemen on Wednesday.

A foreign ministry press officer said Japan was to summon Yemen's ambassador Abdulrahman Mohamed al-Hothi Thursday to express concern over the incident.

"While we do not deny Yemen's right to purchase measures for its own defence, we will strongly urge that it not proliferate these weapons among other countries in the Middle East," she said.

How Yemen responds to the Japanese request could dictate the terms of aid offered by Japan in 2002, she noted.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi expressed concern over North Korea's nuclear arms programme and missile exports during his historic summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il in September.

But a diplomatic row over the abductions of Japanese nationals by North Korean agents, and their extended homecoming, stalled planned security talks between the two countries, which had been expected to focus on North Korean nuclear arms and missiles.

[knighthawk]

Ping

[ChadGore]

It's amazing that countries are pouring money ibnto helping "the pooo impoverished Yemenize" when the money is being used to purchase 15 scuds at a crack.

[DWPittelli]

Especially since Scuds have virtually no utility for Yemen. The Scud missile is basically 1940s V-2 technology. They are very innaccurate, and thus suitable only for terror-bombing a large target like a city. And they are only cost-effective in that role if they have a weapon of mass destruction on them. (Otherwise they're just million-dollar innaccurate truck-bomb replacements.)

Further, Yemen has no likely targets for the Scud. Only Saudi Arabia, Oman, Djibouti and Eritrea are in range (about 200 miles, depending on warhead) -- the former two friendly Arab nations, and the latter separated by water, so not a real threat to Yemen. (Yemen did war with Eritrea over some islands in 1995.) So why would Yemen spend $millions on this junk?

Our biggest fear would be that U.S. forces in Saudi Arabia might be targeted with gas. (That said, recently Yemen has been helping us kill al-Qaeda people in their wilderness.)

[Dog Gone]

I wouldn't exactly describe a Scud as a WMD. You can put a WMD on the tip of one, but otherwise they are just a bomb attached to a rocket motor.

[DAnconia55]

Gotta like the Japanese.

Under appreciated ally. Too bad we can't rearm them..

[Dog Gone]

I think it's more complicated than that. The Japanese have plenty of arms, although they are constitutionally required to be only for self-defense.

The factions in Japan who are anti-military still dominate, and this particular pronouncement is probably more motivated by a "world peace" mentality than a "get tough" mentality.