Rice begins Asia tour

October 18, 2006

Condoleezza Rice met Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Aso. She said her mission was intended in part to reassure South Korea and Japan they had no need to develop a nuclear deterrent of their own in response to the North's weapons programme. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said repeatedly this week that Japan, the only country to suffer an atomic bombing, would not change its nuclear arms policy.