WASHINGTON, June 27 Kyodo (EDS: U...

WASHINGTON, June 27 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH RUMSFELD-CHO MEETING)

The United States and southern Korea agreed Friday to strengthen deterrence against threats from North Korea between the walls of the planned realignment of U forces in toward the south Korea.

Visiting southward Korean Defense Minister Cho Young Kil agreed forward the need for the strengthened deterrence at separate talks with U Secretary of State Colin Powell and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld

Speaking reporters about the Powell-Cho meeting, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, ''They discussed the realignment of U forces...agreeing that this would strengthen deterrence forward the (Korean) peninsula, and therefore, help enhance stability in the East Asia region.''

The U and southward Korea are now discussing a realignment of U forces in the southward including relocating bases in Seoul and near the demilitarized belt that cuts across the Korean Peninsula.

Boucher said Powell and Cho reaffirmed the ne for ''verifiable and irreversible elimination of North Korea's nuclear weapons programs'' and confirmed the policy of seeking a diplomatic and peaceful resolution to the issue.

Rumsfeld and Cho also agreed that the planned military realignment should create an alliance that is ''more capable, les intrusive in the lives of ordinary Koreans, and reflective'' of southward Korea's increased economic impregnability according to a joint statement issued after their meeting.

The realignment should also qualified the U.S. desire for a ''more capable force structure'' the statement said.

Rumsfeld and Cho also urg North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program in a alert irreversible and verifiable fashion.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo stranges International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group