Japan, U.S. don`t see N. Korea as nuke state, to work with S. Korea

SINGAPORE, May 30 Kyodo -
Japan and the United States do not recognize North Korea as a nuclear power
following its recent nuclear and missile tests, Japanese Defense Minister
Yasukazu Hamada said after his bilateral talks Saturday with U.S. Defense
Secretary Robert Gates.
Hamada and Gates were later joined by South Korean National Defense Minister
Lee Sang Hee for their countries' first trilateral defense ministerial talks,
with the three agreeing to cooperate closely in tackling Pyongyang's nuclear
threats.
During a meeting held on the sidelines of an international security dialogue in
Singapore, Hamada and Gates also reaffirmed that should North Korea launch an
attack on Japan or South Korea, the United States would retaliate.
The Japanese and U.S. defense ministers also pledged to continue diplomatic
efforts through frameworks such as the United Nations and the six-party talks
on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions toward North Korea's denuclearization, Hamada
said.
At the trilateral meeting, Hamada, Gates and Lee expressed commitment for
cooperation between their countries in handling North Korean issues but did not
reveal to reporters much detail on how they plan to counter Pyongyang's recent
provocations.
The three ministers also agreed to urge the North to abandon its nuclear and
ballistic missile programs and to return to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty.
''It's important for South Korea, Japan and the United States to work together
along with others to combat this problem multilaterally,'' Gates said as he,
Hamada and Lee emerged from their 45-minute meeting. ''There is a commitment to
do just that.''
Hamada said the three sides were ''able to agree on close trilateral
cooperation on response toward North Korea,'' while Lee said they promised ''to
craft a common response to such situations.''
Lee added, ''North Korea perhaps to this point may have mistakenly believed
that it could be perhaps rewarded for its wrong behavior but that is no longer
the case. We must make North Korea to fully recognize that it will not be
rewarded for its wrong behavior.''
Gates also reiterated the comments made in his speech earlier in the day that
Washington still wants verifiable denuclearization of North Korea, and warned
that it will hold Pyongyang fully accountable for the consequences of its
actions.
The series of meetings were held on the sidelines of the three-day Shangri-La
Dialogue which began Friday, after North Korea conducted on Monday its second
underground nuclear test and then launched a number of missiles toward the Sea
of Japan.
==Kyodo