Aso, Lee reaffirm stance on taking N. Korea launch to UNSC

LONDON, April 1 Kyodo -
Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and South Korean President Lee Myung Bak
reaffirmed Wednesday that if North Korea carries out its planned rocket launch,
the issue should be taken to the U.N. Security Council.
They also agreed that Japan and South Korea, along with the United States, need
to respond to any rocket launch by Pyongyang in a coordinated fashion.
The two leaders signaled their shared stance at a meeting in London just prior
to the start of a two-day financial summit of the Group of 20 major advanced
and emerging economies aimed at jolting the global economy out of the worst
slump since the Great Depression in the 1930s.
''A launch by North Korea would be a clear violation of a U.N. resolution,'' a
senior Japanese official quoted Aso as telling Lee. ''We will take up the issue
at the U.N. Security Council and deal squarely with it.''
Lee was quoted as responding that he is in complete agreement with Aso on the
need for Tokyo, Seoul and Washington to collaborate in addressing a rocket
launch by the North.
The South Korean president also supported Japan's plan to shoot down the North
Korean rocket or its debris in the event that its launch fails and it falls on
Japanese territory.
Patriot guided-missile units of Japan's Air Self-Defense Force arrived this
week at bases in Akita and Iwate prefectures in northeastern Japan to intercept
the rocket that North Korea plans to launch if it falls on Japan.
The units, capable of launching Patriot Advanced Capability-3 missiles, have
been stationed in support of the Maritime Self-Defense Force's Aegis
guided-missile destroyers that have been deployed in the Sea of Japan and the
Pacific Ocean ahead of North Korea's planned launch of what it says is a
satellite between Saturday and April 8.
The Aso-Lee meeting came a day after the foreign ministers of Japan, South
Korea and the United States reaffirmed their consensus in separate bilateral
talks that if North Korea goes ahead with the rocket launch, the issue should
be taken up at the U.N. body.
Japan, over which Pyongyang's rocket would fly if launched as planned, is
stepping up a flurry of diplomacy in the hope of winning support for a
resolution for new sanctions against or condemning North Korea at the Security
Council in the event of a launch.
North Korea has declared that it plans to put an experimental communications
satellite into orbit, notifying aviation and maritime organizations in advance
in accordance with international norms.
A U.N. sanctions resolution passed in 2006 after North Korea announced its
first-ever nuclear test requires Pyongyang to suspend ''all activities related
to its ballistic missile program.''
Japan and its allies suspect the planned launch is a cover for the test-firing
of a Taepodong-2 long-range ballistic missile because the technology involved
in launching a satellite is the same.
In addition to the missile issue, Aso and Lee confirmed the need for close
cooperation in advancing the stalled six-party talks on denuclearizing North
Korea, the Japanese official said.
North Korea warned recently that attempts by members of the multilateral
dialogue on curbing the North's nuclear ambitions to impose fresh sanctions in
the event of a rocket launch would ''deprive the six-party talks of any ground
to exist or their meaning.''
The six-way negotiations, which involve the two Koreas, the United States,
China, Japan and Russia, have been stalled since December, when they broke down
over differences on ways to verify North Korea's nuclear programs.
Aso was quoted as expressing appreciation for Seoul's cooperation in arranging
a recent meeting in South Korea between a former North Korean agent and family
members of a Japanese abductee.
Lee responded by saying it was natural for Seoul to cooperate and that South
Korea wants to continue playing an active role on the issue, according to the
Japanese official.
==Kyodo