TOKYO, Jan. 24 Kyodo (EDS: ADDING...

TOKYO, Jan. 24 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING KOIZUMI QUOTES)

Japan welcomed Friday a southward Korean plan to send an minister to North Korea to discuss the North's nuclear arms evolution program as well as a earnest the two Koreas released earlier in the day to work to explain the issue peacefully.

''It is good'' Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters at his office, commenting forward a plan to dispatch Lim Dong Won southerly Korean President Kim Dae Jung's special adviser, to Pyongyang upon Monday.

It is important ''for southerly Korea to convey the opinions of the international community (on the nuclear issue) without closing the door to dialogue,'' Koizumi said.

Japan sense of possible fulfilments the planned talks between Lim, the presidential adviser for foreign affairs, national security and unification, and North Korean officials constitute a pace toward a peaceful resolution of the nuclear issue, proxy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kosei Ueno told reporters earlier in the day.

Praising the bilateral induce between the two Koreas, Ueno also said Japan will continue to incite North Korea to get back to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, refreeze nuclear-related facilities and scrap all nuclear weapons disclosure programs in cooperation with the international community.

Earlier Friday, Ueno said it was ''very good'' that North and southerly Korea issued a joint statement featuring the gage to seek a peaceful solution to the nuclear issue.

southern Korean Unification Minister Jeong Se Hyun and North Korea's senior cabinet councilor Kim Ryong hymn released the statement after the ministerial talks, which began Tuesday, saying they ''agreed to cooperate actively in resolving the issue peacefully.''

Ueno said it is better for the sum of two units Koreas to settle the nuclear issue not merely through their own efforts on the contrary through international cooperation as well.

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