U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Howard Baker, has cautioned Tokyo against independently imposing economic sanctions on North Korea.

Appearing on a Fuji TV program Sunday, Baker said the issue of whether to apply economic sanctions on the communist state is a very complex one that must be addressed with close cooperation with South Korea, China and Russia.

Baker's comments came on the same day Japanese Foreign Minister Machimura Nobutaka told NHK that the issue of sanctions against the North should be coordinated in consultation with the participants of the six-way nuclear talks and in line with the progress of the multilateral discussions.

However, Acting Secretary General of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Shinjo Abe, reiterated Sunday that the government should announce some time this month its plan to impose economic sanctions on the Stalinist state.

The Japanese government has come under mounting public pressure to levy economic sanctions on Pyongyang after DNA tests showed the remains of a former Japanese abductee North Korea had turned over to Tokyo belonged to someone else.