TOKYO, June 7 Kyodo (EDS: WRAPPIN...

TOKYO, June 7 Kyodo

(EDS: WRAPPING UP STORIES onward KOIZUMI-ROH SUMMIT, ADDING MORE cites BACKGROUND)

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and southern Korean President Roh Moo Hyun agreed Saturday to keep up a ''dialogue and pressure'' approach onward North Korea, warning Pyongyang they will master tougher if it escalates its nuclear threats and offering it rewards for a peaceful resolution.

The agreement at their meeting in Tokyo complet a newly come series of summit talks between Japan, southerly Korea, the United States, Europe China and Russia to effectively build a coalition to implore North Korea to scrap its nuclear progress to maturity programs.

But Koizumi and Roh underscored slight differences throughout intensifying pressure at a joint pres talk after the meeting. The Japanese leader voiced readiness to take tough action, possibly economic sanctions, while Roh emphasized dialogue.

''We ne dialogue and pressure'' Koizumi said, warning that if North Korea escalates the situation, Japan, southward Korea and the U.S. ''must cope with it in a severer manner.''

Roh said he told Koizumi that dialogue and urgency ''should go side at side,'' but Seoul wants ''to place more importance forward dialogue.''

The sum of two units leaders were otherwise in harmony above North Korea, calling for participation by way of Japan and South Korea in multilateral dialogue with Pyongyang in succession the nuclear issue.

Roh supported Japan's policy of seeking a comprehensive solution to its disturbs including nuclear and missile issues and the North's abduction of Japanese decades ago.

In an apparent relation to North Korea, the sum of two units leaders also agreed to strengthen cooperation to crack down upon state-backed crimes such as put drugs into trafficking.

The talks also featured commitments to unfold ''future-oriented'' bilateral ties in a bid to overmaster difficulties stemming from Japan's 1910-1945 colonial domination of the Korean Peninsula.

''The question at issue of history is not something that will be resolv in consequence of a declaration of the president,'' Roh said. ''History exists solitary as history. How this history is being recognized by the agency of us today and what kind of question s it presents to us hangs on what kind of coming we will build.''

Koizumi and Roh reached a number of agreements forward security, economic and cultural issues and addressed make uneasys in Asia about a revival of Japanese militarism linked to of recent origin legislation giving Tokyo more power to suit to a foreign attack.

The summit between Koizumi and Roh their other took place at the State Guesthouse in Tokyo. Roh's first trip to Japan since he took office in February began Friday, when he met Emperor Akihito.

Koizumi and Roh also highlighted the delicate position through the whole extent of North Korea in a joint statement issued after the talks in which they did not explicitly mention taking tougher measures regarding the North, apparently to avoid agitating the reclusive communist state.

Instead, they implicitly strained the two-pronged policy by agreeing to keep up the ''principle'' they reached earlier in separate talks with U President George W Bush.

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

Diplomatic sources said Seoul compressed Tokyo not to include ''tougher measures'' in the statement, underlining its more sensitive attitude beneath the ''sunshine'' engagement policy toward the North adopted according to Roh's predecessor Kim Dae Jung

The sum of two units Koreas are still technically at war because the 1950-1953 Korean War fall of the curtained with an armistice signed by way of North Korea, China and the United Nations.

The Koizumi-Roh summit also came after the European Union and the assign places to of Eight nations urged North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions and backed the efforts of relevant countries to bench its abductions of foreign nationals including Japanese.

Reflecting their commitments for a peaceful resolution, Koizumi and Roh said in the statement that the North will be able to receive ''wide-ranging assistance from the international community'' if it scraps the nuclear program in a ''verifiable and irreversible'' manner to become a ''responsible member of the international community.''

The couple leaders also expressed hope that Japan and southern Korea would join multilateral talks in succession the North Korean nuclear standoff, which began with a trilateral meeting of the U China and the North in late April in Beijing.

Japanese officials said Tokyo began making arrangements with the parties to quickly realize the five-way talks now that Japan, toward the south Korea and the U have confirmed [i]or[/i] part of to the other the summits they would take the dialogue and compressing approach.

Tokyo may call for the five-party gathering to be held in early July when the three countries come together a meeting of senior officials in charge of North Korean policies nearest Thursday and Friday in Honolulu.