Nuke pact not among unconfirmed 'secret' deals

The Foreign Ministry has not yet confirmed the existence of two of the four alleged Japan-U.S. secret pacts that the ministry is investigating, sources said Thursday.

The two agreements are related to the use of U.S. bases in Japan in the event of a crisis on the Korean Peninsula and the 1972 reversion of Okinawa to Japanese sovereignty from U.S. control.

The existence of the agreements has already been exposed through disclosed official U.S. documents and by a Japanese official involved in the secret negotiations, but the government has consistently denied any knowledge of such secret deals.

The ministry has been looking into the secret pacts since September on the orders of Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada and a panel of experts will meet Friday to study the issue further.

The ministry has already found documents suggesting that a deal was signed in 1960, under which Tokyo would allow stopovers by U.S. military vessels and aircraft carrying nuclear weapons, although the treaty requires Washington to hold prior consultations with Tokyo before bringing nuclear weapons into Japan.

There is also an alleged deal that Japan and the U.S. agreed on in revising the Japan-U.S. security treaty in 1960 that Tokyo would allow Washington to use U.S. bases in Japan without prior consultation in the event of the outbreak of hostilities on the Korean Peninsula.