Lee, Aso call for strict implementation of sanctions on N. Korea

TOKYO, June 28 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso on Sunday called for the strict implementation of U.N. sanctions against North Korea, saying Pyongyang must realize that its possession of nuclear weapons will never be tolerated.

The joint call came in a summit held here during Lee's one-day trip to Tokyo.
"The U.N. resolution must be implemented this time," the South Korean president
said at a joint
press conference with Aso after their talks.
Lee was referring to a recent U.N. Security Council resolution that strongly
condemned North Korea for its second atomic test conducted on May 25 and placed
steeper sanctions on the communist state.
"The final aim of the sanctions through the U.N. Security Council will not be to
punish the North, but to persuade North Korea to give up nuclear weapons and
become part of the international community," he said.
Aso said Sunday's talks on the North Korean nuclear issue were "very meaningful
and productive."
"North Korea's development of nuclear weapons and missile technology is a serious
threat to peace and security and it can never be tolerated," the Japanese premier
said during the joint press conference.
The Security Council had adopted a similar sanctions resolution following North
Korea's first-ever nuclear test in 2006, but it was not enforced in full amid
efforts to restart dialogue with Pyongyang.
The latest U.N. resolution prohibits U.N. member states from heavy weapons trade
with the North, while calling on the nations to inspect North Korean vessels
suspected of carrying banned items.
Pyongyang has warned any such inspection will be considered an act of war.
Lee and Aso noted a successful implementation of U.N. sanctions will largely
depend on China, a close ally of the North and its largest donor, which has often
voiced opposition to any attempt to push Pyongyang over the edge.
"At today's summit, we agreed on the need to deepen our cooperation with China
while strengthening relations among South Korea, Japan and the United States,"
Aso said.
Sunday's summit came amid North Korea's boycott of multilateral talks on ending
its nuclear ambitions.
The leaders said they have agreed to seek five-way consultations among the other
participants of the six-nation talks, which also include the United States, China
and Russia, "to seek ways to denuclearize North Korea."
"Strictly speaking, now is the time for U.N. member nations that unanimously
adopted the Security Council resolution to join their efforts to fully implement
it," Lee told the press conference.
He said, however, that the true aim of the U.N. sanctions and the proposed
five-way talks was to persuade North Korea to engage in peaceful dialogue.
North Korea declared in April that it was rejecting the six-party nuclear
disarmament talks after the United Nations condemned its launch of a long-range
rocket earlier that month. The launch was widely believed to be a disguised test
of an inter-continental ballistic missile.
Lee and Aso, in their eighth bilateral talks since the Japanese prime minister
came into office in September, agreed to boost economic ties between their
countries, calling for the early signing of a mutually beneficial free trade
agreement.
"The two leaders agreed to enhance cooperation on nuclear energy, science
technology and aerospace," South Korea's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae said
in a released statement.
Lee also sought to win Tokyo's support in ending discrimination against ethnic
Koreans in Japan.
"President Lee asked for the Japanese prime minister's active cooperation to help
Korean residents in Japan gain suffrage," the statement said.
There are nearly 500,000 ethnic Koreans living in Japan, most of whom are
descendants of Koreans brought to Japan for forced labor during Japan's colonial
rule of the Korean Peninsula in the first half of the 20th century.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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