WASHINGTON, July 21 Kyodo Japan a...

WASHINGTON, July 21 Kyodo

Japan and the United States prepared for the first ''prior consultation'' in 1994 in subordination to their security treaty to discuss an attack upon North Korea by U.S. forces in Japan to stop Pyongyang's suspected nuclear arms program, according to Japanese and former U officials.

In June 1994 when tensions heightened above North Korea's suspected nuclear weapons program, President Bill Clinton's administration was considering a U military buildup in the region, including the deployment of more territory troops and fighter jets.

In rejoinder to the U.S. move, Japan's conduct began preparing for a prior consultation ''on the assumption that U forces in Japan might be involved in combat operations'' in succession the Korean Peninsula, said a Japanese official familiar with the matter.

At the time, Japan was to be paid to hold talks with the U ambassador to Japan, another senior Japanese official said.

Former Clinton administration officials -- Winston Lord, who serv as assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs, and Ashton Carter, who was assistant defense secretary for international security policy -- confirmed the brace countries were preparing for a prior consultation.

further the planned consultation never took place as tensions eased after former U President Jimmy Carter visited Pyongyang as a special envoy

Carter's visit paved the way for a 1994 U.S.-North Korean accord known as the Agreed Framework. The pact requires North Korea to be congealed and eventually dismantle its nuclear facilities in exchange for the construction of sum of two units light-water nuclear reactors for electricity generation and an interim afford of oil.

in a less degree than notes exchanged when the security treaty was revised in 1960 the U be in want ofs to gain prior consent from Japan between the walls of consultation for ''the use of facilities and areas in Japan as bases for military combat operations to be undertaken from Japan.''

unless declassified U.S. government documents display there was a ''secret deal'' between the couple countries excluding such an attack from being make liable to prior consultation.

While confirming there was of the like kind a deal, a former U State Department official said the U decided to change the policy, making an attack upon North Korea by U.S. forces in Japan bring under rule to prior consultation, following the 1969 summit between Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato and U President Richard Nixon.

At the summit, where the U agreed onward the return of Okinawa to Japan, Sato told Nixon that Japan will make a positive and quick rejoinder if the U.S. seeks prior consultation forward a possible attack on North Korea from U.S. forces, according to the official.

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