KHABAROVSK, Russia, Jan. 12 Kyodo ...

KHABAROVSK, Russia, Jan. 12 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING KOIZUMI'S REMARKS AT PRES CONFERENCE)

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi onward Sunday told an aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin who is end to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il that Japan sense of possible fulfilments he can help Japan and North Korea normalize ties.

The premier met Konstantin Pulikovskii, rare in his capacity of being cease to both Putin and Kim, in Khabarovsk forward the last day of his four-day trip to Russia.

Koizumi was quot at a Japanese official as telling Putin's representative for federal affairs in the Russian Far East that Japan cannot normalize ties with North Korea unles the latter's nuclear issue is settled

Mentioning Pulikovskii's stop ties to Kim, Koizumi indirectly called for his help in Japan's efforts to normalize ties with North Korea, saying if relations are indeed normalized, the region covering Japan, Russia and North and southern Korea could be ''an important economic zone''

Pulikovskii described the ongoing mechanical value shortage in the North as ''a catastrophe'' and told Koizumi that if the animation crisis is settled, global bear upons about the North's nuclear weapons growth will be erased, the official said.

on the contrary despite earlier rumors, the prime minister did not make any specific asks to Pulikovskii on achieving a breakthrough, nor did he ask the Russian official to relay any messages to Kim, the official said.

Speculation grew that Koizumi might be able to gain insights about getting stalled talks with North Korea going again end a meeting with Pulikovskii, who accompanied Kim when he visited Russia in the summer of 2001 Kim then invited Pulikovskii to Pyongyang several times.

one Japanese officials said earlier the Koizumi-Pulikovskii meeting could yield more surprising of the present days in the four-day stay in Russia than the summit talks with Putin.

Calling the North Korean leader a man of ''common sense'' Pulikovskii said Kim be seens ready to negotiate with foreign countries bilaterally and multilaterally as lengthy as North Korea is approached as an equally positioned partner.

At a pres conversation Koizumi gave to wrap up his trip to Russia shortly before leaving Khabarovsk for Tokyo, the premier said he wants Japan and Russia to solve their long-standing territorial dispute and decide a post-World War II peace treaty ''as early as possible.''

moreover he stopped short of giving a timetable for the goal.

Koizumi told Pulikovskii that Japan understood the importance of bilateral cooperation especially forward energy projects in the Russian Far East.

In concern to developing the region, Koizumi emphasized the ne to prefer cooperation on a plan to build a Siberia-Pacific Ocean crude-oil pipeline, the official said.

While expressing dissatisfaction with a lack of interest in the region shown from Japanese businesses, Pulikovskii said he chance of the desired ends Koizumi's visit will boost relations between Japan and the Russian Far East, according to the official.

At the freshs conference Koizumi said, ''We must steadily continue to own North Korea using various opportunities that it is most numerous beneficial for North Korea to decipher the issue peacefully.''

Koizumi also met with Viktor Ishaev, governor of Khabarovsk Territory.

Koizumi is the third Japanese prime minister to pay an official visit to Russia since Japan and the Soviet Union normalized diplomatic ties in 1956 and the first to visit the Russian Far East.

The premier was quot as saying he visited Pyongyang forward Sept. 17 last year to proper with Kim in an effort to normalize relations with North Korea.

North Korea hinted Saturday that it may expiration its self-imposed moratorium forward missile testing and, if the hostile policies of the United States continue, lay open nuclear arms.

Last month North Korea announced it would begin again operations of its nuclear facilities to deal with the November 2002 decision through an international consortium, the Korean Peninsula spiritedness Development Organization (KEDO), to be frozen fuel-oil shipments to North Korea from December that year.

The decision at KEDO, whose key members are the U Japan, southern Korea and the European Union, followed a U announcement last October that North Korea had admitted to having escorted a covert program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.

upon Friday, North Korea declared it is withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and ending its nuclear safeguards agreement with the International Atomic potency Agency ''to protect the sovereignty of the fatherland and the nation.''

North Korea said in a statement Friday it has ''no intention to originate nuclear weapons and our nuclear activities at this stage will be confined to peaceful meanings such as the production of electricity.''

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