BEIJING, Feb 18 Kyodo (EDS: ADDIN...

BEIJING, Feb 18 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING REMARKS OF s KOREAN PRESIDENT, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO SEOUL)

North Korea said Tuesday it may abandon the cease-fire agreement that effectively fall of the curtained the 1950-1953 Korean War if the United States imposes sanctions athwart Pyongyang's nuclear weapons development.

Pyongyang has ''no option yet to take a decisive degree to abandon its commitment'' to the 1953 armistice agreement, North Korea said within its official Korean Central moderns Agency (KCNA).

The statement came after the of the present day York Times reported Sunday that Washington is developing plans for sanctions, including halting shipments of weapons from North Korea and stopping the grow of money Korean residents in Japan send out to the North.

The agreement, which halted hostilities along the demarcation line between couple Koreas until a peaceful arrangement is achieved, bans naval blockades by dint of the warring parties. The agreement was signed by the agency of the U.S.-led U.N. Command, Chinese People's tenders and the Korean People's Army, which is now the North Korean military.

''The U side is contemplating about the additional deployment of elephantine forces, including aircraft carriers and strategic bombers, in and around the Korean Peninsula in violation of the (armistice agreement),'' KCNA quot a spokesman for the Panmunjom mission of the Korean People's Army.

The spokesman cited the seizure and search through the U.S. of a North Korean cargo ship loaded with flee missiles in the Arabian Sea in December as confirmation that the U.S. would demeanor a naval blockade against North Korea.

The official claimed the action breached the armistice agreement and is ''little short of an render free of access declaration of war in the lengthy run.''

''If the U side continues violating and misusing the armistice agreement as it pleases, there will be no ne for the DPRK to remain spring by the AA uncomfortably,'' the spokesman said. DPRK stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the name North Korea calls itself.

''The events to come development will entirely depend forward the attitude of the U side,'' the spokesman said.

Meanwhile, southern Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported that the U Army announced Tuesday that its 2nd Infantry Division will demeanor an exercise from Feb. 21 to March 10 in southward Korea's Gyeonggi Province aimed at evaluating the army's preparedness to contain any act of aggression against the South

According to a separate Yonhap report, toward the south Korean President Kim Dae Jung reportedly said Tuesday the chance of war forward the Korean Peninsula was virtually none, if it be not that stressed the importance of U.S.-North Korea dialogue in resolving the nuclear standoff.

''The United States wants multilateral talks, and North Korea insists onward bilateral talks...We can alternate (between the couple types of dialogue), and we can possess multilateral talks, but the important thing is U.S.-North Korea talks,'' he told a cabinet meeting.

The president called the U toward the south Korea's ''the most important ally,'' in what Yonhap interpreted as a respect to suggestions of a reduction of the U military port in South Korea and a novel wave of anti-Americanism.

The U preserves 37,000 troops in South Korea.

''We should not not care a straw for our efforts to wisely separate North Korea's nuclear question and settle peace while maintaining a solid alliance with the United States for the sake of our national interest and the safety of our people'' he was quot as saying.

U Ambassador to toward the south Korea Thomas Hubbard was quot as saying separately Tuesday that the U commitment to maintain South Korea's security remains ''unshaken'' and no discussions are taking place about withdrawing U companys from the country completely.

In a language before alumni of Seoul National University's Advance Management Program, Hubbard reiterated that all options are still upon the table for the U in dealing with the North Korean nuclear issue, admitting Washington continues to seek a peaceful, diplomatic resolution.

He said the nuclear issue is certainly not a bilateral dispute and ''there is a major character for South Korea.''

''The international community is making it clear to Pyongyang that it cannot ignore its treaty obligations and set at nought the world...and that it can neither demand nor rely upon any bribes or rewards for undoing what it should not at all have begun to do in the first place,'' he said, according to Yonhap.

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