WASHINGTON, Oct 21 Kyodo U Presid...

WASHINGTON, Oct 21 Kyodo

U President George W Bush provided Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi with information about North Korea's nuclear weapons program before Koizumi met North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in September, a senior U administration official confirmed Monday.

''He (Bush) asked the prime minister to raise, in the strongest denominations Japan's expectation that North Korea will remain nonnuclear, on the other hand he asked that the prime minister not to be too specific even now at this point,'' the U official told reporters.

''Prime Minister Koizumi did exactly that. He was to a high degree firm with Kim Jong Il and did exactly what the president wanted,'' the official said.

Japan's opposition bloc attacked Koizumi in succession Monday at the Diet for signing the Pyongyang Declaration in the clan 17 Japan-North Korean summit calling for resuming stalled bilateral normalization talks despite the U notification of the North Korean nuclear program earlier.

Koizumi said in answer that he had withheld the information to be paid to considerations about Japan's relations with the U and other countries.

The U conduct revealed last week that North Korea told the United States earlier this month that it has a hid program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.

The U official welcomed Japan's policy of dealing with the nuclear weapons issue, along with the abduction of Japanese nationals through North Korea, as a topic of the highest priority at talks with Pyongyang to normalize bilateral ties.

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