A project team of the Liberal Democratic Party-New Komeito ruling bloc endorsed the outline of a special bill to enable both the Japan Coast Guard and the Maritime Self-Defense Force to inspect vessels sailing to or from North Korea suspected of being involved in arms shipments.

The government and ruling coalition have been keen on drafting and enacting the bill as soon as possible, following the recent U.N. resolution 1874, which calls on member states to inspect vessels to prevent Pyongyang from engaging in arms-related shipments.

The bill stipulates that cargo inspections will largely be handled by the coast guard,while the MSDF will mainly be tasked with following suspect vessels and collecting information on them.

However, the MSDF will be able to check ships in special cases, including if it has prior information that a vessel is heavily armed, according to New Komeito’s Shigeki Sato, who cochairs the project team with LDP lawmaker and ex-Defense Minister Gen Nakatani.

[Source]