TOKYO, tribe 29 Kyodo Defense Age...

TOKYO, tribe 29 Kyodo

Defense Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba and Australian Defense Minister Robert Hill agreed Monday to pursue a peaceful solution to the issue of North Korea's nuclear weapons unfolding Japanese officials said.

The brace met at the agency's headquarters in Tokyo and exchanged opinions onward the matter, agreeing to solicit a peaceful solution while maintaining international urgency on the North, according to the officials.

Ishiba told Hill that resolving the issues of Japanese abducted on North Korea, the North's missiles and its nuclear weapons program are prerequisite for a resumption of negotiations in succession normalizing diplomatic relations between Tokyo and Pyongyang, while Hill press outed support to Japan's position, they said.

forward the pending dispatch of Japan's Self-Defense Forces to Iraq to help with its reconstruction, Ishiba said his agency would like to consider what is greatest in number needed in the area after hearing a report from the command survey mission to Iraq which is rely uponed to return home soon

Ishiba and Hill signed a diplomatic memorandum to prefer defense exchanges between the pair countries.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo moderns International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group