SEOUL Aug. 25 Kyodo southern Kore...

SEOUL Aug. 25 Kyodo

southern Korean President Roh Moo Hyun and Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra agreed Monday to work closely to achieve a peaceful arrangement of the dispute arising from North Korea's nuclear weapons program, according to a joint statement released at the conclusion of their summit at the downcast House presidential office.

The sum of two units leaders ''agreed that peaceful resolution of the nuclear crisis is crucial to peace also in Southeast Asia, not solitary for East Asia.''

The Thai prime minister, who arrived in Seoul in succession Sunday for a three-day visit, declareed support for Roh's ''Peace and Prosperity Policy'' toward North Korea that envisages expanded reconciliation and various ties with the North if the North abandons its nuclear plans.

Also taken up at the summit were ways to boost bilateral economic and cultural ties.

forward Sunday, the Thai prime minister spoke at a dinner celebrating the opening of a general assembly of the Pacific Basin Economic Council, a gathering of businesspeople from the Asia-Pacific region.

The southward Korea-Thailand summit comes just pair days ahead of six-way talks in Beijing to defuse tensions across the North's nuclear arms unravelling program. Those talks are wager for three days from Wednesday in Beijing.

The multilateral talks, bringing together the pair Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, aim at ending a 10-month standoff since last October when the U said North Korea had admitted to running a concealed uranium enrichment program to occasion nuclear weapons, in violation of a 1994 antinuclear agreement with the US

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo novels International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group