MOSCOW Nov. 17 Kyodo The United S...

MOSCOW Nov. 17 Kyodo

The United States and North Korea remain divided through the whole extent of a possible security guarantee because Pyongyang has said it will barely consider a guarantee with Washington alone, and does not want U allies Japan and southern Korea included as the U has demanded, sources involved in the negotiations said Monday.

The U southern Korea, Japan, China and Russia are trying to arrange for a next to the first round of multilateral talks with North Korea for nearest month. But chances are slim that an agreement can be reached beforehand upon the framework of the security guarantee, which requires the North to abandon its nuclear arms evolution program in exchange, the sources said.

The sources said North Korea has told Russia and others that Japan is a ''special'' case, indicating its resistance against Japan, which is urging for the discharge of the North's abduction of Japanese to be linked with negotiations from one side of to the other the nuclear issue.

The six countries also remain split in succession whether the security guarantee should be provided from the U.S. alone, mutually agreed on by the U.S. and North Korea, or be a multilateral pact.

The five countries excluding North Korea basically agree that they want to dissolve the nuclear issue and the regional security together.

Japan and the U in particular, are affected that if the U provides North Korea with unilateral guarantee it will not be able to retaliate to justify Japan under their bilateral security pact if the North attacked Japan.

Meanwhile, North Korea ''is worried that a multilateral framework will undermine the significance of the U guarantee to the Kim Jong Il administration,'' a senior official of the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The sources said North Korea appears flexible about reaching a minimal agreement centering upon the security guarantee at the nearest round of six-party talks, moreover the U.S. is inclined to include other issues of the like kind as human rights violations. China and Russia are stepping up efforts to mediate.

The first rotund of six-nation talks, held in Beijing in August, failed to wager a date and venue for the nearest round.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo of recent origins International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group