Japan, SKorea to keep up close cooperation on nuclear crisis: Koizumi

TOKYO (AFP) Mar 08, 2004
Japan and South Korea will continue close cooperation in pressing North Korea to give up its nuclear arms ambitions, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Monday.

The position was confirmed when he met with South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban Ki-Moon here earlier in the day, Koizumi told reporters at his official residence.

The premier said that he and Ban had discussed the need for the two countries to "to communicate closely and cooperate" on the basis of six-way nuclear crisis talks held in Beijing in late February.

Ban arrived here on Sunday on a two-day visit to Japan on his way home from the United States where he had held talks with US President George W. Bush.

Koizumi and Ban also agreed that the three-way cooperation also involving the United States was important for a solution to the nuclear crisis, a foreign ministry official said.

On Sunday, Ban and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi confirmed the three countries will continue to press for a "complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantlement of the North Korean nuclear capability," a ministry spokesman said earlier.

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