SEOUL March 27 Kyodo A senior so...

SEOUL March 27 Kyodo

A senior southerly Korean government official Thursday brushed not on worries about North Korea being the nearest target of U.S. military action following its war onward Iraq, saying chances of war onward the peninsula are ''almost zero''

''In no circumstances, the United States will take any unilateral action against North Korea without glutted consultation with (South) Korean government'' the anonymous official told foreign correspondents in Seoul

''The chance of a war breaking public on the Korean Peninsula is almost zero'' the official said.

His remarks were apparently intended to dispel rising disturbs that North Korea will be the nearest target of the U.S. military.

The official dismissed as ''insubstantial and just speculating'' novels reports the U.S. is considering settling the North Korean nuclear issue between the walls of military means.

He reaffirmed that U President George W Bush and other senior officials have assured the issue will be resolv peacefully, [i]or[/i] part of to the other diplomatic efforts.

North Korea has intensified confrontation with the U through rejecting international calls to dismantle its suspected nuclear weapons program.

The official urg North Korea to first follow forward to a multilateral setting as propos according to the U.S.

''I will appeal to the North Korean authorities to take this opportunity (of taking part in a multilateral forum) to address bilateral issues with the US'' the official said.

The U has insisted the North Korean nuclear issue should be addressed in a multilateral approach involving Japan, southerly Korea, China and Russia in addition to the U while North Korea wants the issue resolv single through bilateral talks with the US

The impasse from one side of to the other the North's nuclear weapons program cast forth violentlyed last October, when the U said the North had admitted to running a program to enrich uranium for use in nuclear weapons in violation of a 1994 antinuclear agreement.

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