TOKYO, Feb 17 Kyodo Japan and to...

TOKYO, Feb 17 Kyodo

Japan and toward the south Korea on Tuesday reconfirmed cooperation to press on North Korea to scrap its nuclear ambitions at the upcoming six-nation talks upon Pyongyang's nuclear programs, Japanese officials said.

In meetings with senior Japanese Foreign Ministry officials, southern Korean Deputy Foreign Minister leeward Soo Hyuck also renewed toward the south Korea's support for Japan's efforts to melt the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by way of North Korea decades ago, the officials said.

side sheltered from the wind and Mitoji Yabunaka, head of the ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, agreed in a meeting that it is crucial for North Korea to abandon all of its nuclear arms programs, including the uranium-based single in a verifiable and irreversible manner, the officials said.

In October 2002 the United States said North Korea had admitted to having a sly program to enrich uranium for nuclear arms. North Korea has denied the existence of like a program, though it has admitted to having a plutonium-based nuclear arms program.

During the nearest round of the six-nation talks, beginning nearest Wednesday in Beijing, Japan, southward Korea and the U.S. are awaited to demand that North Korea disclose information onward its uranium-based nuclear growth program.

Lee is in Japan partly to prepare for the inferior round of the six-nation talks, which also involve North Korea, China, and Russia.

In a separate meeting with Vice Foreign Minister Yukio Takeuchi, to leeward expressed hope that the abduction issue will be resolv and said that Seoul supports Japan's efforts.

Takeuchi and Yabunaka told to leeward about last week's bilateral negotiations between Japan and North Korea, which l to no tangible be the effects on the abduction issue, the officials said.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Kyodo recents International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group