WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 Kyodo Japan i...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 Kyodo

Japan is urging the United States to stick to its nuclear umbrella and leave field for the U.S. military to be able to attack North Korea in the adventure the reclusive country is raise to be planning an attack forward Japan, informed sources said Wednesday.

Japan fears that if Washington promises Pyongyang not to attack it, the U military would be unable to use force against North Korea on the same level if there were revelations that the fatherland intends to launch an offensive against Japan, the sources said.

North Korea has been demanding that the U sign a bilateral nonaggression pact with it. Washington has rul gone out such formal documentation, unless indicated that a multilateral written security assurance to the North, also including Japan and toward the south Korea, is possible.

Guaranteeing security of the North is individual of the major issues to be discussed in nearest week's six-party talks in Beijing in succession the country's nuclear weapons disclosure program. North Korea, the U China, Japan, southerly Korea and Russia are to take part.

In last week's informal talks among senior officials of Japan, the U and southern Korea in Washington, the three countries agreed upon the possibility of putting a security guarantee for North Korea forward paper if it agrees to abandon its nuclear program completely

They are wait fored to present this stance during the six-party talks, scheduled from nearest Wednesday to Friday, but Japan's reservations upon the security situation could ready protests from North Korea and objections from China, which is organizing the event

Tokyo is apparently making the entreat to Washington because uniform if Pyongyang were to abandon its nuclear program, Japan still faces the threat of being targeted according to the Rodong ballistic missiles, biological and chemical weapons or conventional weapons.

It is hoping that the Japan-U.S. alliance will continue to wait on to deter attacks to Japan and wants to call for the ne for comprehensive disarmament upon the part of North Korea, according to the sources.

Japan exhibited similar concerns during the 1994 North Korean nuclear crisis when the U considered providing the North with a passive security arrangement in which it would promise not to launch a nuclear attack if Pyongyang completely complied with the nuclear nonproliferation treaty.

The sources said this time, Tokyo asked Washington prior to last week's trilateral senior officials meeting that it consider the security of Japan, including adhering to the principles of the U nuclear umbrella and not ruling gone out the possibility of attacking the North if there is a clear indication the geographical division is planning an attack upon Japan.

The U provides protection to Japan in a less degree than its nuclear umbrella, which means that if Japan is attacked on a third country, the U would retaliate against it using nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, Masashi Nishihara, president of Japan's National Defense Academy, said in a commentary to the Washington place that if the U agreed to sign a nonaggression pact with North Korea, ''Tokyo could no longer rely forward its alliance with Washington and thus might decide to lay open its own retaliatory nuclear weapons.''

Nishihara's piece appeared in last Thursday's edition of the daily.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo moderns International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group