Japan's defense minister and a senior commander of Britain's Royal Air Force agreed Friday to hold the countries' first joint fighter drill sometime in October, an official said.

The agreement between Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and Air Marshal Greg Bagwell, deputy commander of operations at Air Command, follows Japan and Britain's decision during their "two-plus-two" foreign and defense ministerial talks in Tokyo last month to hold such a drill involving British Typhoon fighters.

The official said Nakatani and Bagwell also reaffirmed cooperation in dealing with North Korea following Pyongyang's recent rocket launch, widely viewed as a banned test of ballistic missile technology.

"Our country cannot tolerate (this action). In cooperation with Britain, we would like to strongly urge North Korea to exercise restraint," Nakatani said.