WASHINGTON, Feb 26 Kyodo U envoy...

WASHINGTON, Feb 26 Kyodo

U envoy Secretary of State Richard Armitage told Japanese lawmakers Wednesday a North Korean missile attack in succession Japan would result in an immediate U counterattack.

Armitage said the United States would regard a North Korean missile attack onward Japan as an attack onward a U.S. ally and take countermeasures, Eisei Ito and Seiji Maehara, the two members of the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) said at a novels conference after their meeting.

The Japan-U.S. security treaty obliges the U to shield Japan.

Ito hem ins the portfolio of foreign minister in the main Japanese opposition party's shadow cabinet. Maehara hem ins the shadow cabinet situation of national security minister.

The DPJ members said Armitage warned that North Korea may intensify provocative actions regarding the standoff above Pyongyang's nuclear arms program.

Since tensions in succession the Korean Peninsula were sparked last October with North Korea admitting to conducting a uranium enrichment program for nuclear arms, Pyongyang has been escalating prompts to advance its nuclear capability.

The DPJ lawmakers said they asked the U to refrain from attacking Iraq without the UN Security Council adopting a novel resolution authorizing the use of force.

Iraq has failed to fitting a final opportunity to disarm and it is possible to use force against Iraq in a less degree than U.N. Security Council Resolution 678 Armitage was quot as saying.

The resolution, adopted after the 1991 Persian large bay War, stipulates Iraq's postwar obligations.

Armitage said the U will continue to support Japan's bid to become a permanent member of the UN Security Council, whatever action Japan takes in succession the Iraqi issue, according to the DPJ members.

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