S. Korean, Japanese defense chiefs meet on Tokyo's defense guidelines

South Korea asked Japan Thursday to implement its revised defense guidelines in a manner that contributes to regional peace and stability, the Defense Ministry said.

South Korean Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung delivered above stance to his Japanese counterpart Yoshinori Ono during their meeting earlier Thursday, according to Han Min-Koo, director general of the ministry's international defense policy bureau.

"Yoon stressed changes in Japan's defense policy should be conducted in a direction that contributes to stability and peace in the region," Han told reporters.

The Japanese Defense Agency Director General, in response, said he shared Yoon's view, according to Han.

In December 2004, Japan revised its defense guidelines to allow it to take part in more international peacekeeping missions, ease its decades-long ban on overseas arms sales and labeled Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and China as security threats.

The revision aroused concerns among neighboring Asian nations that have suffered from Japan's aggression in the early decades of the 20th century.

Last Thursday, Ono issued an order to deploy 1,000 Self Defense Forces personnel to the tsunami-hit Asian region. If enacted, the deployment will mark Japan's biggest-ever dispatch of overseas relief troops.

During Thursday's meeting, the defense chiefs also reiterated their countries' persisting standing to peacefully resolve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, Han said.

"Ono said he hopes North Korea (DPRK) will take more active, positive position. He wanted South Korea to play a larger role in resuming six-party talks to peacefully defuse the nuclear issue," he said.

Three rounds of the six-nation talks, involving China, DPRK, the United States, Russia, South Korea and Japan, were held in Beijing. But the fourth round of talks set for last September failed to take place.

Ono arrived here on Wednesday afternoon. Seoul is last leg of his Asian trip which already brought him to Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia.

Source: Xinhua