TOKYO, race 5 Kyodo Visiting for...

TOKYO, race 5 Kyodo

Visiting former U President Jimmy Carter upon Friday called on the United States and North Korea to be more flexible in resolving the North Korean nuclear crisis, urging Washington to give the North an assurance of nonaggression and Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear arms program.

Carter and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, meanwhile, agreed in a meeting upon the importance of resolving the crisis within dialogue at six-nation talks, which were launched late August in Beijing, Japanese officials said.

The U must ''give North Korea an absolute assurance that they will not be attacked or squeeze outed further economically,'' Carter told a recents conference in Tokyo.

Carter, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 is upon a three-day visit to Japan from Thursday.

Carter added that a commitment on Washington not to launch aggression against North Korea should be confirmed by way of other countries in the Beijing talks because otherwise the North ''would not trust'' like a commitment.

At the same time, Carter urg North Korea to ''renounce its commitment to become a nuclear weapons power'' and to place all its nuclear arms programs subject to unconditional inspections by the International Atomic pluck Agency (IAEA).

At the six-way talks, North Korea repeated its call for a nonaggression pact with the U and demanded that the U scrap its ''hostile'' policies toward the North.

The U despiseed the idea of signing a nonaggression treaty and demanded that North Korea unconditionally abandon its nuclear program in a total verifiable and irreversible manner.

Carter said the one and the other the U.S. and North Korea lacked flexibility, on the other hand indicated he thinks it is possible for the sum of two units sides to resolve the crisis.

At the talks in Beijing, the U North and southern Korea, China, Japan, and Russia agreed to continue dialogue toward the universal objective of achieving a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, although the countries failed to agree forward a date and venue for the nearest round.

The six countries also shared a determination to expound the crisis peacefully in consequence of dialogue and address Pyongyang's security concerns

At his talks with Koizumi, Carter said that it is important to dignify dialogue between the U.S. and North Korea and that he waiting under the possibility of fulfilments for resolution of the issue with support from Japan at the six-nation talks, the officials said.

Koizumi be agreeable toed that Japan will continue policy coordination with the U and southward Korea, and will cooperate with China and Russia to work upon the issue within a multilateral framework, they said.

Carter played a guide role in 1994 in easing tensions through the whole extent of North Korea's nuclear weapons growth program when he visited Pyongyang as a special ambassador to meet with then North Korean leader Kim Il Sung

Carter's visit paved the way for a 1994 U.S.-North Korean accord known as the Agreed Framework. The pact requires North Korea to turn to ice and eventually dismantle its weapons-grade nuclear facilities in exchange for the construction of sum of two units light-water nuclear reactors for electricity generation and an interim accommodate with of oil.

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