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NEW DELHI, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said on Tuesday the reported secret transfer of nuclear and missile technology between Pakistan and North Korea would have an impact on ties between Tokyo and Islamabad.

The New York Times newspaper reported in November that Pakistan had provided North Korea with technology needed to make enriched uranium for nuclear weapons in return for missile parts.

"This would naturally have an impact on bilateral relations between Japan and Pakistan if this was continuing or taking place," Sarna quoted Kawaguchi as telling Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha.

Pakistan denied the reports at the time and said it was confident there had been no security breach in its nuclear programme.

Islamabad has allied itself with Washington in the declared war on terrorism and Washington has warned it will lose international goodwill if it was found to be helping Pyongyang with nuclear technology.

Pyongyang last month expelled U.N. inspectors and vowed to restart a reactor which had been idle since a 1994 pact froze its nuclear programme in exchange for oil from the West.

Kawaguchi's visit to India coincided with a meeting between U.S., Japanese and South Korean officials in Washington to discuss how to deal with North Korea's nuclear threat.

North Korea has said economic sanctions over its nuclear programme would mean war. 

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