Jan 29 12:14 PM US/Eastern
TOKYO, Jan. 30 (AP) - (Kyodo) — A government panel examining alleged Japan-U.S. secret pacts on nuclear weapons and other issues will admit the existence of three secret agreements in its final report to be issued by the end of March, sources close to the panel said Friday.
The three pacts relate to stopovers and passage of nuclear-armed U.S. warships, use of U.S. military bases in Japan in the event of a contingency on the Korean Peninsula and allowing the United States to bring nuclear weapons to Okinawa in times of emergency, according to the sources.
Given the development, the government, in consultation with Washington, will change its previous stance that the bilateral secret pacts do not exist, the sources said.
The existence of the three pacts has been confirmed by related documents as well as the testimonies of former senior Foreign Ministry officials. The panel will continue investigating an alleged secret pact related to Japan's assumption of the cost for the 1972 reversion of Okinawa to Japanese sovereignty, the sources said.
The six-member panel, headed by University of Tokyo professor Shinichi Kitaoka, was launched in November, following an instruction from Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, to investigate the four alleged Japan- U.S. secret pacts related to the 1960 revision of the bilateral security treaty and the reversion of Okinawa. The government has long denied the existence of the secret pacts.
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