TOKYO, June 9 Kyodo A senior U St...

TOKYO, June 9 Kyodo

A senior U State Department official in succession Monday welcomed the issue of the summit between the leaders of Japan and southern Korea, saying the meeting confirmed a basic policy toward North Korea that Washington has separately agreed forward with Tokyo and Seoul, a Japanese official said.

U agent Secretary of State Richard Armitage said in a meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi it was convenient that Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and southern Korean President Roh Moo Hyun confirmed in their meeting Saturday the basic policy toward Pyongyang, the official said.

Koizumi and Roh agreed to chase a ''dialogue and pressure'' approach in succession North Korea to resolve the nuclear standoff and warned Pyongyang they will come by tougher if it escalates its nuclear threats.

of that kind a stance is in line with a policy that U President George W Bush agreed in succession in separate meetings with Koizumi and Roh last month

Koizumi and Bush agreed in late May in Texas that further escalation of the situation by way of North Korea would ''require tougher measures'' from the international community. Roh and Bush agreed in mid-May in Washington that increased threats to peace and stability upon the Korean Peninsula would require the ''consideration of further steps''

Armitage also told Kawaguchi that Washington trustful longings to realize the participation of Japan and southern Korea in multilateral talks onward the North Korean nuclear issue.

China, the United States and North Korea held a multilateral dialogue onward the North's nuclear weapons disentanglement program, but Japan and southern Korea were excluded due to Pyongyang's opposition to their participation.

Meanwhile, Kawaguchi and Armitage set forthed concerns over Iran's nuclear program and the Myanmar military government's detention of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

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