By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
North Korea should become a responsible member of the international community, Japanese Ambassador to Seoul Shortaro Oshima said Wednesday.
In his speech at a forum organized by the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, he said Japan and South Korea share much in common in resolving the security issue.
The ambassador said Japan would maintain its pacifist stance in the future.
A growing number of experts have expressed worries over the Japanese parliament's approval in May of a bill describing procedures for a referendum on the constitutional revision.
He made it clear that Japan would not produce a security threat even after the revision of its Constitution.
``Prime Minister Abe himself has stated that the fundamental principles cannot be changed, recognizing that they are deeply engrained in the hearts and minds of Japanese people,'' he said.
He said the Japanese government has embraced the concept of ``Arc of Freedom and Prosperity" as one of the guiding principles of Japanese diplomacy.
The ambassador explained the concept reflects that freedom and democracy are essential in realizing sustainable stability and prosperity and the ``value-based'' principle coincides with Japan's own experience of economic development after the second World War.
He also said Japan plans to provide support to those countries in the periphery of the Eurasian continent, which are struggling to achieve freedom and democracy.
Oshima said, ``It is of strategic importance to ensure that these countries succeed in their quests for freedom and democracy, given that their failure will inevitably generate instability and uncertainties regionally as well as globally.''