Japan may pick up part of cost

TOKYO, Nov. 6 (UPI) -- Japan may join the U.S. team in disabling North Korea’s nuclear facilities and share the cost of the effort.

That indication came Tuesday from Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura, who said his country will consider sending a team of experts to take part in the disablement process, Kyodo news service reported. The process began Monday at the Yongbyon facility near Pyongyang, the center of North Korea’s nuclear activity.

As to sharing the costs, Komura was quoted as saying, “This is not the so-called aid for North Korea, so I guess we will somehow have to consider it.”

Japan along with the United States, China, Russia and the two Koreas are in the six-nation effort to denuclearize North Korea in return for massive aid to the Communist country.

Japan so far has balked at providing aid to North Korea, saying it will do so only after North Korea has resolved the issue of Japanese nationals kidnapped in the 1970s and 1980s.