SEOUL Oct 31 Kyodo southward Kore...

SEOUL Oct 31 Kyodo

southward Korea on Friday welcomed North Korea's concurrence to reconvene six-nation talks aimed at resolving the impasse athwart the North's nuclear weapons program.

''We consider it exceedingly encouraging that North Korea represented its willingness to take part in a posterior round of six-party talks,'' Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry spokesman Shin Bong Kil said in a statement.

The spokesman said southern Korea hopes that a other round of multilateral talks will be resum at an early date.

upon Thursday, China and North Korea agreed ''in principle'' to begin again six-nation talks on the North Korean nuclear issue, according to Chinese and North Korean official of recent origins reports.

The agreement was reached in a meeting between Wu Bangguo, head of China's legislature and No. 2 in the Chinese Communist Party's hierarchy, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang.

The first cylindrical by two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia was held in Beijing in late August.

The multilateral talks fall of the curtained without producing a date or venue for the nearest round, but reports said another circular will likely be held before the expiration of this year.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo of the present days International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group