North Korea set off new alarm bells with its test-firing last month of seven ballistic missiles which splashed in the Sea of Japan (East Sea). In 1998, it test-launched a missile over Japan.

"What Japan is doing right now is anticipating a situation where those missiles are being launched against Japan," Defense Agency Chief Fukushiro Nukaga said, after meeting with his Indonesian counterpart Juwono Sudarsono.

"Japan's self-defense forces have increased strength to defend themselves to face a situation such as this one," Nukaga told reporters without elaborating.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi favors turning the Defense Agency into a full-fledged Defense Ministry and revising the 1947 US-imposed constitution, which bans Japan from using force or even having troops.

Nukaga said that Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions were "not just a problem for Japan ... but will also have negative impacts" for other regional nations.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono cancelled a planned trip to the two Koreas last month in the wake of the missile tests.

He had been expected to urge the Stalinist state to resume stalled six-nation talks on ending the North's nuclear drive.

Sudarsono said he told Nukaga that Jakarta would revive efforts to host a meeting between the defense ministers of the Koreas in Indonesia in a bid to reduce tensions.

"I have been assigned by the president to continue following the possibility of a meeting of the North and South Korean defense ministers," he said.

"God willing, if both of them are willing to meet in Indonesia, the Defense Ministry is willing to facilitate that meeting," Sudarsono said.

Jakarta has long-standing ties with North Korea, dating from the era of Indonesia's first president Sukarno. South Korea and Indonesia established diplomatic ties in 1973.

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