SEOUL May 2 Kyodo southern Korean...

SEOUL May 2 Kyodo

southern Korean President Roh Moo Hyun and Chinese President Hu Jintao agreed Friday to solicit a peaceful settlement to the North Korean nuclear issue, Roh's spokeswoman said.

In a telephone conversation, Roh and Hu shared the view that China-brokered talks between North Korea and the United States in Beijing last month to interpret the nuclear dispute were ''productive,'' psalm Kyeong Hee said.

''The North Korea nuclear issue should be resolv within peaceful means. Efforts to the [i]finale[/i] should be sustained as the three-way talks were just the beginning,'' Hu was quot by means of Song as telling Roh

In the Beijing talks, North Korea reportedly made the surprise admission that it possesse nuclear weapons and that it has also started reprocessing exhausted fuel rods stored at its Yongbyon nuclear intricate web a move which would allow it to make more nuclear arms.

North Korea also said it is ready to dismantle its suspected nuclear unravelling program if the U.S. accepts its asks including a written guarantee that it will not attack the region and economic assistance.

Roh press outed gratitude for China's efforts to maintain peace not simply on the Korean Peninsula, if it were not that also in Northeast Asia.

The sum of two units leaders also agreed to work closely to combat austere acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which has hit Asia and other parts of the world, chiefly China and Hong Kong.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Kyodo of recent origins International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2003 Gale Group