Security Tight as Reagan Arrives in Tokyo

Still preoccupied with the Soviet nuclear disaster, President Reagan arrived Friday under extremely tight security for an economic summit meeting likely to be dominated by discussions of that disaster and concern over international terrorism.

At the first White House briefing here early today, spokesman Larry Speakes disclosed that at the request of several East European countries, Reagan has dispatched teams of experts to provide technical and medical assistance in the aftermath of the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear plant near Kiev in the Ukraine.

And because of the danger of radioactive fallout, Speakes said, the United States has recommended that Americans avoid traveling in the area of Kiev, 60 miles south of where the Chernobyl reactor is still smoldering. Pregnant women and children should not travel to Poland, he added.

Secretary of State George P. Shultz, at another briefing today dominated by questions about the Chernobyl incident, denied Soviet charges that the United States has exaggerated the seriousness of the disaster and said he stands by his earlier statement that the number of fatalities exceeds “by a good measure” the two acknowledged by Moscow.

‘I Would Bet You $10’

“I can’t give you a number, but the number of two dead, I would bet you $10, is very low,” Shultz said.

He said that he did not mean to be jocular but that the information accumulated by the United States through satellite photographs and other methods will show that the toll at Chernobyl--both dead and injured--is far greater than the Soviets have admitted. In Washington, however, a member of the U.S. task force monitoring the Ukraine disaster said Friday that the Soviet report of two deaths may be true.

Shultz complained that the Soviets “haven’t been forthcoming” about the accident, and he said the information Moscow has supplied is “far less than we know right here.”

Although acknowledging that both terrorism and the nuclear disaster will be major items on the summit agenda, Shultz said important global economic problems also will be discussed, as originally scheduled.

Dominating the Agenda

Shultz had said earlier that he hoped that the Chernobyl incident would not eclipse economic issues at this 12th annual summit, which gets under way Sunday. But Speakes said that if the nuclear accident and international terrorism do dominate the agenda, “so be it.”

Both issues are of vital interest to all seven of the industrialized nations meeting here, Speakes said, and will be high on Reagan’s agenda.

En route here Friday from Bali, Indonesia, aboard Air Force One, Speakes announced the convening of a Cabinet-level group headed by Vice President George Bush to study the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor “to see what additional information we need to make judgments on health and safety . . . and consider what additional diplomatic responses might be necessary.”

Reagan and officials of the six other major industrial democracies meeting here have criticized the Kremlin for refusing to provide a fuller account of the fire and release of radioactive substances at Chernobyl.

Soviet Actions Questioned

Several heads of state, including the summit host, Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, have questioned the Soviets’ handling of the disaster and indicated that it will be a major topic of discussion here.

In Bangkok on Friday, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said he will insist that summit participants discuss the disaster to lay the groundwork for international cooperation in case of similar accidents in the future.

Kohl told a news conference as he prepared to travel to Tokyo after a four-day visit to Thailand that a key question that must be resolved is whether countries that suffer accidents at nuclear power plants should be required to provide detailed information on such incidents.

He chided the Soviet Union for delaying an announcement of the Chernobyl accident for at least two days and added, “It is an illusion to believe it will be possible to conceal these things or hide these things.”

Wants Stricter Rules

Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi also called for summit action on the Soviet disaster and said stricter international rules should be adopted to govern the handling of information after a nuclear accident.

All seven countries represented at the summit use nuclear power plants. Besides Reagan, Nakasone, Kohl and Craxi, the summit participants are Prime Minister Brian Mulroney of Canada, President Francois Mitterrand of France and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Britain.

Aboard Air Force One, Speakes said the Cabinet group headed by Bush will concentrate on consulting with European allies on the problem of handling nuclear accident information rather than on continuing criticism of the Soviet Union for its handling of the matter.

Reagan, who has made clear that he will press the allies for a united effort to combat terrorism, was greeted by a massive show of Japanese security when he arrived at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.

A small pool of reporters who accompanied the President on Air Force One was impeded in its work by security officers, and the expressway from Haneda Airport into the city was closed to traffic for two hours.

In an interview with Japanese journalists, made public Friday by the White House, Reagan also said that the summit will provide an opportunity for the heads of state to agree on collective action for combating terrorism.

“The scourge of terrorism has profoundly affected the peoples of our country,” Reagan said. “We must look for ways to deter states such as Libya from supporting, directing and sponsoring terrorism, while we concurrently look for ways to ameliorate the root causes of such activity.”

Differ on Terror Response

But while the allies are united in their approach to dealing with the Soviet nuclear disaster, they differ on how to respond to international terrorism.

Craxi, for example, hinted at a press briefing here that Italy will oppose any moves at the summit to seek more economic sanctions against Libya. “Economic sanctions,” he said, “will not resolve the problem of terrorism.”