The Ministry of National Defense said that Minister Cho told his Japanese counterpart that the North Korean nuclear problem should be approached within a multinational framework, with intimate Korean-Japanese cooperation and U.S.-North Korean talks.

Minister Ishiba said that as Japan concentrates only on defense, it is impossible for his country to target North Korea directly, and that Japan has to restrain the North under the U.S.-Japanese alliance.

He added that if the problem of North Korea's abduction of Japanese nationals is not solved, his government would not fulfill the promises of economic assistance made last year with North Korea.

The Korean Defense Ministry quoted the Japanese minister as saying that his country was worried because the nuclear problem was not a problem just between the United States and North Korea. If South Korea, the United States and Japan had different opinions on the subject, North Korea might take advantage of the situation, so the three countries should put out a united front, Ishiba said.

The two ministers also discussed military exchange measures, such as the third joint marine search-and-rescue training, a Korean army versus Japanese defense corps football game in October and Korean participation in the November Japanese defense corps' music festival. (Yoo Yong-won, kysu@chosun.com )