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18. Sir John Coles urged the Japanese delegation to continue the dialogue, however unproductive it might be. Japan had an important role to play in bringing North Korea in from the cold. The US thought there was a window of opportunity on the nuclear issue, and
hoped that North Korea would recognise this. We would follow up
through our Ambassador to the United Nations. It was clear that
Japan had a more formal process of recognition than the UK. We had
been able to recognise North Korea without drawing undue attention to ourselves. But we had no intention of establishing diplomatic
relations.
19. Mr Tanino said that he was particularly concerned about reports
of North Korean/Iran military cooperation. He understood that Iran
had promised to provide North Korea with financial assistance to
manufacture long range missiles covering a 900 kilometre range.
This would cover Japan. The Japanese Government were in touch with
the US and Soviet Governments on this issue. Did we have
corroboration? Sir John Coles said that we were unsighted, but
would check, and let the Japanese know.
China
i
20. Mr Tanino said that medium ranking Chinese officials had told their Japanese counterparts that they would like Zou Jiahua or Zhu Rongji to replace Li Peng. There was a possibility that Li Peng might be elevated to replace Yang Shangkun as State President. We all had to be prepared for the post-Deng period. Economic reform was at a point of no return, particularly in the South. This would
in turn reactivate the political reform dialogue. Mr Warren set out briefly the terms in which human rights had been raised by Ministers with the visiting Chinese Vice Premier, who had not rejected the
issue but had once again made the Chinese argument that human rights
was not an indivisible concept.
21. Mr Tanino said that Mr Kaifu had had two things in mind during his visit: completing the process of normalisation of relations by continuing to extend cooperation for Chinese modernisation, and reiterating the importance of observing human rights and the
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