Japan sticks to non-nuclear arms pledge after Trump remark

Japan’s government says it will stick to its policy of not possessing nuclear weapons, after US presidential hopeful Donald Trump said he would be open to the idea of Japan and South Korea having their own atomic arsenals.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters today that the country’s “three principles of not owning, making or allowing nuclear weapons remain an important basic policy of the government.”

Trump said in an interview with The New York Times published yesterday that asking Japan and South Korea to pay more for their own defence “could mean nuclear.”

He said the issue “at some point is something that we have to talk about.” A South Korean Defence Ministry spokesman said he had no comment on Trump’s remark.