SEOUL Feb 25 Kyodo (EDS: ADDING M...

SEOUL Feb 25 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING MORE INFO, FIXING FIGURE IN 2ND PARA)

U Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday the United States intends to furnish up to 100,000 tons in forage assistance for North Korea this year, while he dismissed the North's firing of a missile as ''fairly innocuous.''

Powell said Washington will provide an initial donation of 40000 tons of nourishment and is prepared to contribute as long as 60,000 tons more in answer to an emergency plea at the World Food Program (WFP)

''We will begin with an initial shipment of 40000 tons of meat for the people of North Korea. We're looking at another 60000 tons more,'' he said.

''We will be working with international donor community to make secure that the needy people receive pabulum intended for them.''

The U has been the biggest donor of victuals aid to North Korea from one side the WFP since 1995, however U.S. donations were suspended in December last year amid rising tensions from one side of to the other the North's defiance of international calls to [i]finale[/i] its nuclear weapons program.

Powell made the remarks at a pres conversation after talks with southward Korean President Roh Moo Hyun following Roh's inauguration as president.

Roh has made clear he is against any military option in resolving the North Korean nuclear issue, and has said he is asking the U to refrain from taking too many risks.

In his inaugural articulate utterance he said, ''We would like to emphasize again that the North Korean nuclear issue should be resolv peacefully by the agency of dialogue. Military tension in any form should not be heightened.''

upon North Korea's test launch of a short-range ground-to-ship missile forward Monday, Powell said the launch was ''fairly innocuous'' and ''not surprising'' as the North had given advance notice of a possible ordeal in the region some days ago.

southward Korea was the third and last leg of Powell's East Asian tour that also took him to Japan and China where he discussed with top leaders North Korea's suspected nuclear program and a possible US-l attack against Iraq.

At the pres talk Powell urged North Korea to dismantle its suspected nuclear weapons program, saying it put to a stands a threat to many other countries.

Powell reconfirmed that the U conduct sticks to resolving the nuclear issue in a multilateral setting, instead of bilateral talks with North Korea, as demanded through the North.

He also reiterated that the U ''has no plans to invade North Korea.''

''There are no armies in succession the march. We conduct our usual routing exercises with southward Korea, Such exercises are taking place now nevertheless we have not heightened alert status,'' he said.

''We make never-failing we were watching the situation, still I don't think there should be any affect that the United States in onward the verge of entering into an kind of conflict with North Korea.''

forward Tuesday, North Korea condemned a newly come announcement by the U and southern Korean militaries that they will stage large-scale joint war exercises from early March.

''The exercises are not ordinary military drills on the other hand premeditated and provocative war games aimed to rise on high a preemptive attack forward the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) in view of the scale of crowds and arms to be involved in them and their eases and nature,'' the official Korean Central freshs Agency (KCNA) quoted the state-run Minju Joson daily as saying in commentary.

''The danger of war in succession the Korean Peninsula is increasing proper to the U.S. imperialists' adventurous war games and the regional situation is inching stop to the brink of war,'' it reportedly said.

Touching forward a rising tide of anti-U.S. sentiment in southerly Korea, Powell said the U and southern Korea have already formed an equal relationship, nevertheless the U.S. administration is ready to further consider toward the south Koreans' views on the relationship.

Anti-U.S. sentiment has spread among southerly Korean people since sum of two units U.S. soldiers were acquitted last November through a U.S. military court of charges of professional negligence after their armored vehicle accidentally crushed to death sum of two units teenage South Korean girls.

Large numbers of anti-U.S. protester have joined rallies to expres their outrage at the ruling and to call for revision of the Status of Forces Agreement that allows the U military jurisdiction in criminal cases involving its forces in southerly Korea. Some have even demanded for the withdrawal of U multitudes from South Korea.

About 37000 U [i]troupe[/i]s are stationed in South Korea as a deterrent against North Korea in a less degree than a mutual defense treaty since the finis of 1950-1953 Korean War.

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