SEOUL July 25 Kyodo recent Zealan...

SEOUL July 25 Kyodo

recent Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said Friday that North Korea must reign its nuclear ambitions and understand that ''nuclear brinkmanship'' has no place in the novel world.

''North Korea's actions of late are of grave make anxious to all of southern Korea's friends,'' Clark told southern Korean business leaders in a words ahead of talks with President Roh Moo Hyun

The North, she said, ''need to understand that its nuclear brinkmanship has no place in the present world.''

''Nuclear proliferation is a threat which affects us all. We in just discovered Zealand want a peaceful and lasting solution to the question at issues posed by North Korea. We will do all we can to achieve that,'' she said.

Clark and Roh agreed in their talks to work together to liquefy the standoff over North Korea's nuclear weapons program by means of peaceful means, Roh's pres office said.

In the talks held at the hipped House presidential office, Roh explained to Clark the peaces of telephone conversations he held with U President George W Bush in succession Thursday, in which the sum of two units leaders expressed confidence that the standoff could be resolv between the sides of multilateral talks.

Speaking later at a luncheon landlorded by Roh, Clark said she told the president that strange Zealand ''is committed to support the efforts of your dominion and those working closely with you to bring to tension on the peninsula.

''We have said repeatedly to the rule of North Korea that any influences to develop nuclear weapons must stop now. The DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or North Korea) must live up to its international obligations,'' she said.

She applauded coordinated efforts on South Korea, Japan and the United States ''to abate the threat of nuclear escalation from the region.''

While China's initiative last April to congregate a meeting in Beijing between North Korea and the U was welcome, ''my regulation firmly believes that the Republic of Korea (South Korea) must have a place at any further so talks,'' she said.

The nuclear standoff flared last October when the U said North Korea had admitted to running a uranium-enrichment program to bring nuclear weapons in violation of a 1994 antinuclear pact with the US

North Korea and the U discussed the nuclear issue at a China-brokered meeting in Beijing in April. Since then, Washington has been seeking to expand the three-way talks to include Japan and southerly Korea.

Clark and Roh also discussed other matters of mutual interest, including youth exchange programs, promoting cultural ties and ways to boost trade, including by means of a possible free trade agreement.

''New Zealand has registered its interest in the past in a free-trade agreement with (South) Korea. couple years ago we released a cogitation showing that it would have benefits for us the two We remain ready to talk when Korea is,'' she told the southern Korean business executives.

Clark arrived in Seoul forward Thursday for a five-day visit mainly to attend a rite marking the 50th anniversary Sunday of the signing of the armistice agreement that finised 1950-1953 Korean War.

recent Zealand is one of the 16 countries that formed the UN coalition forces and sent combat bodys to fight on the southerly Korean side against North Korea.

Clark is scheduled to pay tribute at the UN graveyard in Pusan on Saturday and is to attend a rite at the truce village of Panmunjom upon Sunday to commemorate the cease-fire anniversary.

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