S. Korean, Japanese foreign ministers urge N. Korea not to fire missile

By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, March 2 (Yonhap) -- Top South Korean and Japanese diplomats agreed Monday
to step up joint efforts to persuade North Korea not to fire a long-range
missile, officials here.
In their telephone conversation, Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan and his
counterpart Hirofumi Nakasone shared the view that North Korea's rocket launch,
which Pyongyang claims is aimed at sending a communications satellite into orbit,
would violate the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718, officials added.
The resolution, adopted in 2006 after the North's missile and nuclear tests that
year, bans the communist country from engaging in any activity related to a
ballistic missile launch.
The Yu-Nakasone talks were to exchange the results of their separate discussions
with their U.S. and Chinese counterparts last week, according to South Korean
foreign ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young.
lcd@yna.co.kr
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