SEOUL-Japan and South Korea agreed on the weekend to support a continued freeze of an international project to provide North Korea with two light-water nuclear reactors.

Meeting with his South Korean counterpart Ban Ki Moon, Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura made clear it was preferable to continue the freeze rather than cancel the project altogether.

The two reactors to be built by the Korean Peninsula Energy Development Organization (KEDO) are intended to provide power to North Koreans. In return, the Pyongyang regime is required to dismantle its nuclear weapons development programs.

Construction of the KEDO reactors was stopped Dec. 1, 2003, in response to the escalating nuclear crisis.

During Saturday's talks, Ban proposed extending the suspension for one year. Machimura agreed, saying Tokyo would work closely with Seoul.

The United States has argued for scrapping the KEDO project because Pyongyang violated the so-called Agreed Framework that it signed with Washington in 1994.

Tokyo and Seoul are shouldering more than 90 percent of KEDO's financing. With both countries now calling for an extension, it is more likely that the KEDO framework will be maintained-for the time being anyway.

Leaving open the possibility of resuming the project could provide leverage to persuade Pyongyang to return to the six-nation talks, officials said.(IHT/Asahi: November 8,2004)