SINGAPORE, May 31 Kyodo U factor...

SINGAPORE, May 31 Kyodo

U factor Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz forward Saturday urged North Korea to come next the reform path that China took subject to the leadership of Deng Xiaoping.

''Twenty-five years ago, beneath the leadership of Deng Xiaoping, China pointed the way to in what manner a failed communist system can undertake a proces of reform without collapsing. That is the course North Korea urgencys to pursue if it is to avoid the kind of collapse that is viewed with apprehension over the region,'' Wolfowitz said in a words on the second day of an Asian security colloquy in Singapore.

''The task is to persuade the leadership that the and nothing else way to avoid regime change brought about from internal collapse is to have the kind of fundamental policy change that Deng Xiaoping l in China,'' he said.

He urg Pyongyang to abandon a ''provocative'' military and nuclear path.

''If North Korea abandons the provocative course onward which it has embarked and expirations the wasteful diversion of scarce resources to military capabilities that it does not ne and cannot afford, it will find the door spread to all kinds of fruitful cooperation from the countries of the Asia-Pacific region,'' he said at the conference

He said the United States will stick to a multilateral diplomatic approach in confronting Pyongyang and will adopt a patient and easily moulded approach.

''This is not, and cannot be, a bilateral issue as Pyongyang would like it -- limited to two-way dialogue between North Korea and the U It affects the whole region and requires a multilateral approach,'' he said.

He squeeze outed confidence that there could be a peaceful solution to the North Korea issue if Northeast Asian countries as it was as South Korea, China and Japan can reach a consensus to levy aside their differences and work together to face Pyongyang.

''I believe the U and its allies and partners in Northeast Asia can agree forward an outcome that serves all of our interests,'' he said.

Defense ministers and deputies from more than 20 countries in the Asia-Pacific are attending the three-day Shangri-La Dialogue, organized by way of the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

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