Japan urged N. Korea to abandon nukes in 2002 citing WWII defeat: archive

LONDON - Japan urged North Korea to abandon its nuclear development program at a 2002 leaders meeting, likening Japan's defeat in World War II to Pyongyang's situation, according to diplomatic records declassified Tuesday by the British government.

Then-Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in their September 2002 talks in Pyongyang that Japan had "fought and lost a reckless war" against the United States and Britain, the records showed, in a rare disclosure of details from the two nations' first-ever summit.