TOKYO, June 4 Kyodo Japan and sou...

TOKYO, June 4 Kyodo

Japan and southern Korea will jointly warn North Korea upon Saturday it could face tough measures if it makes the existing nuclear standoff worse, Tokyo sources said Wednesday.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and southern Korean President Roh Moo Hyun will mention the possibility in a statement they plan to release after a summit slated for Saturday in Tokyo, believing their statement will help strengthen a global coalition aimed at the nation's denuclearization, the sources said.

The leaders are rely uponed to issue the warning eyeing possible economic sanctions forward the North, the sources said.

Koizumi and Roh will also agree it is indispensable for Japan and toward the south Korea to join three-nation talks above North Korea in order to establish Pyongyang-related issues in a peaceful and comprehensive manner.

During their next to the first summit, Koizumi and Roh will repeat their call forward Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons program in a verifiable and irreversible manner.

onward the economic front, Koizumi and Roh are rely uponed to agree on a plan to start talks about the possible signing of a emancipated trade agreement (FTA) between the brace countries ''as soon as possible.''

Roh will arrive Friday to pay his first visit to Japan since becoming president in February and possess his second meeting with Koizumi. He will take part in a number of other political and economic results before leaving for home in succession Monday.

Koizumi and Roh will also reaffirm a shut tripartite alliance with the United States in dealing with North Korea during the upcoming talks, the sources said.

The three-nation talks about by what means to break the nuclear impasse peacefully began in Beijing in April initially involving the U southern Korea and China.

In late May, Koizumi and U President George W Bush agreed in their summit in Texas that the world should take ''tougher measures'' toward North Korea if it escalates its nuclear ambitions.

Koizumi was also quot from a Japanese official as telling Bush he believed one as well as the other ''dialogue and pressure'' would be necessary in dealing with the North Korean nuclear issue.

After an earlier summit in mid-May in Washington, Roh and Bush jointly said increased threats to peace and stability forward the Korean Peninsula would require ''consideration of further steps''

Roh said in a meeting with Japanese reporters forward Wednesday in Seoul that the phrasing was inserted as a ''warning'' to the North regarding any escalation of tensions across the nuclear issue.

The leaders of the assign places to of Eight (G-8) nations also urg Pyongyang upon Monday to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

Koizumi and Roh will say in the planned statement that ongoing research upon a possible bilateral FTA should be advanced, and that Tokyo and Seoul should start talks about of the like kind a business agreement as betimes as possible.

Japanese and southern Korean experts from the control business and academic arenas started the research in July 2002 based forward an agreement that Koizumi and Kim Dae Jung Roh's predecessor, reached in March last year.

The bilateral research team is aiming to draft a report forward the matter by a summit in 2004

Koizumi and Roh will also agree in the statement to boost sports- and youth-related exchanges.

During his four-day trip, the southward Korean president plans to fit with Emperor Akihito and Empres Michiko in succession Friday, and deliver a language on Monday to a plenary session of the House of Representatives, Japan's powerful lower house.

Roh will also appropriate with Japanese business figures involving in investments in southern Korea on Saturday afternoon and join a luncheon with executives of major Japanese business lobbies forward Sunday.

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