Japan and the United States agreed Thursday in top-level talks to strengthen their alliance in implementing sanctions over the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) for its recent nuclear test, Kyodo News reported.

The agreement was made during a 40-minute meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"Ensuring the implementation of the U.N. Security Council resolution" will lead to changing the DPRK policies, Abe said, " In order to do so, we will work out the details of what we can do and what we need to do on the working level."

Reports said Thursday that the two countries have agreed to examine the role of the military in searching the DPRK cargo ships under the U.N. resolution. Washington and Tokyo also agreed to establish working-level discussions between their foreign and defense ministries on the conduct of the searches, Kyodo said.

Following the DPRK's announcement on Oct. 9 that it had conducted a successful nuclear test, the U.N. Security Council on Saturday unanimously adopted a resolution imposing sanctions against the DPRK.

Abe reiterated that Japan does not intend to change its non- nuclear policies, which states that Japan would not produce, possess or allow the entry into its territory of nuclear weapons. "I do no think the party will officially discuss the matter," he said.

Rice indicated that Washington hopes that a settlement of the nuclear issue could be achieved through dialogues. "We've also been clear that we are not going to invade or attack" the DPRK, Rice said.

"The United States has no desire to escalate this crisis. We would like to see it de-escalate," Rice said on Wednesday after meeting with Foreign Minister Taro Aso.

The top U.S. diplomat's trip to Japan was seen as among the diplomatic efforts between various countries to solve the Korean peninsula nuclear issue. Rice flew to Seoul, South Korea late Thursday morning and is also slated to visit China and Russia.

Source: Xinhua