Basel Peace Office is working with PNND, the Nagasaki Research Centre on Nuclear Abolition, Nautilus Institute and the Asia Pacific Leadership Group on Nonproliferation and Disarmament on a proposal for a North East Asian NWFZ which takes into consideration the security concerns and relationships of the three intra-zonal countries (Japan, North Korea and South Korea) and the principle nuclear weapon States active in the region (China, Russia and the USA).
In 2009, PNND member Katsuya Okada (later to become the Foreign Minister of Japan) released a model NE Asia NWFZ treaty based on a 3+3 approach, under which the three intra-zonal States would agree to prohibit the deployment of nuclear weapons on their territories and refrain from threatening each other with nuclear weapons from their allies, and the three key NWS would agree not to threaten or use nuclear weapons against the three intra-zonal States.
The 3+3 proposal is supported by a cross-party group of PNND members from Japan and South Korea, and has been discussed in a number of meetings of academics, parliamentarians, policy experts and officials in Nagasaki, Tokyo and Seoul.
Resources:
- Model Treaty on a Northeast Asia Nuclear Weapon Free Zone, produced by the Democratic Party of Japan Nuclear Disarmament Group
-
Joint statement of 93 Japanese and South Korean parliamentarians on Denuclearisation of North East Asia and in support of a NE Asia NWFZ.