A clear policy difference emerged between Japan and the United States when they had bilateral consultations before a U.N. panel adopted a Japanese resolution this month calling for the total elimination of nuclear weapons, according to diplomatic sources.
The United States had opposed including some sentences referring to the importance of Article 6 of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and agreements reached at the review conferences on the NPT in 1995, 2000 and 2010 in the Japan-sponsored U.N. resolution, the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity recently told Kyodo News.
The article, which was not mentioned in a similar U.N. resolution the previous year, calls on nuclear-armed states to pursue nuclear disarmament.