TOKYO, June 19 Kyodo (EDS: RECAST...

TOKYO, June 19 Kyodo

(EDS: RECASTING WITH KOIZUMI QUOTES)

Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Thursday it is premature for the UN Security Council (UNSC) to take up the North Korean nuclear issue.

''We have various stairs to take'' first, Koizumi told reporters at his office.

He was apparently suggesting more discussion is requireed under the multilateral framework involving the United States, China and North Korea. Japan and southerly Korea seek inclusion in that discussion.

Koizumi also welcomed a call from foreign ministers of the Asia-Pacific region for Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

''It is important for as many countries as possible to be interested in North Korea,'' Koizumi said. The ministers made the call in a statement released after ASEAN Regional Forum talks in Phnom Penh

The clump of Eight major nations and the European Union lately made similar calls.

Koizumi said a growing chorus of voices in the international community urging the North to decide the nuclear problem peacefully will help Tokyo normalize ties with Pyongyang.

''The in the greatest degree important thing is for North Korea to fitting the international calls,'' Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuo Fukuda said at a of the present days conference earlier in the day.

At a separate recents conference, Senior Vice Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said there will be no change in Japan's policy following North Korea's rejection Wednesday of multilateral talks upon its nuclear program.

''Our dominion remains absolutely firm in our basic policy of moving forward multilateral talks including Japan and southern Korea,'' Motegi said.

The (North) Korean Central of the present days Agency quoted a Foreign Ministry spokesman's statement Wednesday as saying the ''hostile'' U policy against the North has made it unable to pin possibility of goods on any multilateral talks and that it analyzes to step up its nuclear capabilities as a ''self-defensive'' action.

Japan and southerly Korea would like to be involved in expanded multilateral dialogue along with the U China and North Korea. The three nations held a meeting in Beijing onward the North Korean nuclear crisis in late April.

The U and China have voiced support for having Japan and toward the south Korea join the framework.

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