Posted on 06/07/2003 6:01:09 AM PDT by knighthawk
TOKYO: South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said on Saturday they would not tolerate North Korea's nuclear arms programme, but diverged on how to go about pressing Pyongyang to disarm.
A statement issued after a meeting between the two leaders in Tokyo endorsed multilateral diplomacy, while side-stepping the issue of how to put an end to Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.
"The two leaders agreed that the North Korean nuclear issue is a serious threat not only to the Korean peninsula but for the peace and stability of East Asia and the international nuclear non-proliferation system," the statement said.
"The two leaders agreed that North Korea's nuclear weapons and any form of development programme will not be tolerated and this problem must be solved in a peaceful, diplomatic manner."
The talks, the centre-piece of Roh's four-day trip to Japan, were the third leg of a diplomatic triangle that included the two leaders' summits with US President George W Bush last month.
Roh and aides said the chemistry between the two was relaxed.
Roh had been criticised at home for meeting Japan's emperor on Friday, Korea's Memorial Day when the country honours victims of war and Japan's harsh 1910-1945 occupation.
The crisis on the peninsula -- the last Cold War frontier --emerged last year when US officials said Pyongyang had admitted to pursuing an atomic arms programme in violation of a 1994 pact.
US officials later said that North Korea had revealed that it already had nuclear weapons at talks in April in Beijing.
"The two leaders emphasised that North Korea's nuclear weapons programme must be abandoned in a verifiable and irreversible manner," the joint statement said.
The two Asian leaders urged North Korea not to escalate the situation and reconfirmed the principles embodied in separate statements issued after their summits with Bush.
Roh agreed with Bush on May 14 that "further steps" might be needed if North Korea escalated the crisis. A week later Koizumi and the US president spoke of "tougher measures".
Seoul had been averse to including tough language in the joint statement out of fear of provoking unpredictable Pyongyang.
Koizumi, who lauded Roh's "courageous decision" to come to Tokyo, told a news conference dialogue was important but a tougher response would be needed if Pyongyang escalated tensions.
Roh put the emphasis the other way around. "Dialogue and pressure must proceed in parallel, but the stance of the South Korean government is to stress dialogue," he said.
Support possible
Roh's foreign policy adviser, Ban Ki-moon, told reporters the language may have differed "but the three summits all sent the same message to North Korea on the nuclear issue".
"We are all in the same boat," Ban said, adding Seoul considered the summit "a big success" despite some controversy.
Japan and South Korea -- both within range of Pyongyang's missiles -- are wary of provoking the communist state with talk of a military option. Washington says it wants a diplomatic solution, but won't rule out the use of force.
North Korea upset Japan and the region 1998 when it test fired a ballistic missile that flew over Japan's main island.
Gaps also exist among Seoul, Tokyo and Washington over how much to tighten the economic noose around North Korea, which says it would view sanctions as an act of war. Pyongyang's trade with the outside world is negligible, aside from weapons shipments to the Middle East and a large suspected trade in illegal narcotics.
Roh and Koizumi welcomed the role played by China -- one of Pyongyang's few allies -- in hosting US-North Korea talks in April. They said Japan and South Korea must join the process.
The two leaders said North Korea could get international help for its sickly economy if it solved the nuclear problem and other concerns. Roh also said he supported Japan's quest to resolve a dispute over Japanese citizens kidnapped by North Korea.
Roh, 56, is the first South Korean leader who was born after Japan's colonial rule -- a shared history that has long soured relations. Roh, who said he sought forward-looking ties, felt comfortable with the 61-year-old Koizumi, aides said.
"A more important achievement than the summit statement was the fact that we two leaders could talk frankly without hiding anything and without formality," Roh told the news conference.
Roh and Koizumi also agreed to step up efforts to forge a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA). Tokyo had hoped to begin talks this year, but Seoul wanted more time in view of a chronic trade deficit with Japan that hit $15 billion in 2002, Ban said.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.