Japan, South Korea urge international action against North Korea

Jun 28, 2009, 10:58 GMT

Tokyo - Japan and South Korea agreed at a summit Sunday in Tokyo that the international community needs to put further pressure on North Korea against its nuclear testing programme.

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and visiting South Korean President Lee Myung Bak urged that United Nations members implement a resolution adopted in May, while they said they would cooperate with the United States to urge Pyongyang to denuclearize.

'There is nothing that (North Korea) can gain from its nuclear tests and missile launches through the faithful implementation of the UN Security Council resolution by UN members,' Lee said at a joint press conference after the bilateral summit talks.

'We absolutely cannot tolerate North Korea's nuclear weapons and missiles development as it poses a serious threat to peace and security,' Aso said.

The two Asian leaders also agreed to exchange information and work together on implementing the new resolution, which imposes cargo inspections of North Korean vessels for any nuclear-related materials.

Aso and Lee were considering five-party talks, which exclude Pyongyang, to push to resume stalled six-party talks aimed at denuclearizing North Korea. The negotiations involve the two Koreas, Japan, China, Russia and the United States, have been stalled since December.

North Korea threatened to leave the talks in protest at a UN Security Council statement condemning its rocket launch in April.

On economic cooperation between Japan and South Korea, the two leaders decided to hold top level meetings to resume negotiations on their economic partnership agreement.

The negotiations have been stalled since 2004 because of Tokyo's rejection of Seoul's demand for a further opening up of Japan's market to agricultural products.

Sunday's summit meeting was the fourth between Aso and Lee.