TOKYO — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has kicked off the official program of her first overseas trip in Tokyo. She visited a Japanese cultural site and met U.S. Embassy staff under the shadow of threatening rhetoric from North Korea.
Clinton joined in a purification rite and welcoming ceremony at a Shinto shrine. She said the shrine’s message of “balance and harmony” would set the tone for the Obama administration’s foreign policy, especially in tough economic times. She said balance and harmony is a good concept for America’s role in the world.
Clinton did not specifically mention North Korea, whose threat to press ahead with test-firing a long-range missile is expected to be at the top of her discussions with officials in Japan as well as later in South Korea and China.
Japan, with an unpopular government and struggling with deep economic woes, is particularly jittery at the moment, and Clinton aims to reassure the country of its importance in the international arena.
“The bilateral relationship between the United States and Japan is a cornerstone in our efforts around the world,” she said.
Today, she is expected to announce that she will send a special U.S. envoy to a Japanese-hosted donors conference for Pakistan.
In addition to meeting with top government officials and members of the opposition, Clinton will sign an agreement to move about 8,000 of the 50,000 Marines on the island of Okinawa to the U.S. Pacific territory of Guam.
But North Korea looms large over her visit. On Monday, the 67th birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il, Pyongyang claimed that it has the right to “space development” — a term it has used in the past to disguise a missile test as a satellite launch. When North Korea test-fired a long-range missile in 1998, it claimed to have put a satellite into orbit.
On Sunday, Clinton told reporters on her plane that North Korea needs to live up to commitments to dismantle its nuclear programs, saying Washington is willing to normalize ties with it in return for nuclear disarmament.
