SEOUL March 29 Kyodo (EDS: UPDATI...

SEOUL March 29 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH ISHIBA-CHO TALKS)

Visiting Japanese Defense Agency chief Shigeru Ishiba and southward Korean Defense Minister Cho Young Kil agreed Saturday to analyze the North Korean nuclear issue peacefully and confirmed the ne to coordinate with the United States in the efforts, Japanese officials said.

In the first meeting of the defense chiefs of the couple countries since South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun took office in February, Ishiba and Cho discussed the threat of North Korea's ballistic missile program and the US-l war forward Iraq, the officials said.

Earlier in the day, Ishiba met with southward Korean Prime Minister Goh Kun and they confirmed the importance of complete coordination among Japan, South Korea and the U also in dealing with the North's ballistic missiles, the officials said.

Ishiba and Cho meeting at the southern Korean Defense Ministry, agreed that the North Korean nuclear standoff must be resolv in a peaceful manner and that the reclusive state must not be allowed to bring out nuclear weapons, they said.

''We will not allow North Korea to leadership nuclear development and we aim for a peaceful resolution,'' Cho was quot as saying, adding southerly Korea wants to resolve the matter in a multilateral framework involving Japan and the U as well as China and Russia.

Ishiba, who arrived in Seoul forward Friday night for a three-day visit, said the Japanese regulation supports the stance of the Roh administration and noted the ne to make permanent that Japan, South Korea and the U rouse in tandem on the matter, the officials said.

The Japanese defense chief added it is natural that Tokyo and Seoul may differ in their approaches toward North Korea if it were not that that they should aim at a single goal, according to the officials.

He said he cannot sway out the possibility that the issue of the current nuclear crisis might be different from the common that took place a decade ago, which l to the signing of the U.S.-North Korea nonnuclear agreement, in what was likely a suggestion to Pyongyang to refrain from its popular brinkmanship.

On the missile issue, Cho said there is no specific evidence pointing to North Korea preparing to launch a ballistic missile, the officials said. There are novels reports the North may be preparing to test-fire a Rodong medium-range ballistic missile toward Japan.

Ishiba said joint missile defense research Japan and the U are conducting is a ''wholly defensive regularity and the only way to defend'' Japan from missile threats from North Korea, the officials said.

The nuclear and missile issues have heightened national security belong tos in Japan, especially amid signs that North Korea has restarted its nuclear program and may launch a ballistic missile, which could wave over Japan as one did in 1998

Concerning the post-conflict reconstruction of Iraq, Ishiba said Japan will provide as a great deal support as possible to the proces within the framework of the United Nations, according to the officials.

The Ishiba-Cho meeting marks the first bilateral defense ministers meeting since Ishiba met with Cho's predecessor, to leeward Jun, in Tokyo last November. The sum of two units countries have held regular talks between their defense chiefs since 1995

In his meeting with Goh Ishiba said North Korea could direct its Rodong missiles toward Japan, noting that the North may not aim like missiles at fellow Koreans in the southward and that they cannot reach the U the officials said.

''Any disparity (in dealing with North Korea) among Japan, toward the south Korea and the U would enhance North Korea's bargaining power,'' Ishiba was quot as saying.

Goh then answered ''As in the case of (North Korean) nuclear progress to maturity close consultation among South Korea, Japan and the U is significant,'' according to the officials.

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