SEOUL Feb 12 Kyodo southern Korea...

SEOUL Feb 12 Kyodo

southern Korea urged North Korea forward Wednesday to resolve the standoff arising from the North's suspected nuclear weapons program, saying bilateral economic cooperation would not progres without a peaceful liquidation to the problem.

The southward made the demand in the fourth circular of inter-Korean economic talks that started Wednesday in Seoul

In answer to the South Korean demand, the North Korean mission said the North's position has already been known and refused to make further annotations on the issue, according to a pond report by South Korean journalists.

North Korea has said the nuclear impasse can be resolv and nothing else through direct talks with the United States. Pyongyang also demanded a legally binding nonaggression pact with the U before dismantling its nuclear progressive growth program.

During the latest economic talks that will period Friday, the two sides will take up topics concerning the construction of sum of two units sets of cross-border railways and their adjacent roads and the establishment of an industrial entangled in Kaesong, a North Korean city just north of the respite village of Panmunjom.

toward the south Korea has used various channels with the North to carry its and international touchs about the mounting tensions sparked at the North's defiance of antinuclear agreements.

At the ninth ministerial-level talks held in Seoul last month North Korea failed to clearly state it would abandon its nuclear ambitions. The sum of two units sides just released a statement containing an agreement to explain the issue peacefully.

The five-member North Korean delegation is headed at Pak Chang Ryon, chairman of the inter-Korean economic cooperation promotion committee, while the five-member southern Korean team is headed by the agency of Vice Finance and Economy Minister Yoon Jin Shik.

The economic talks between the couple Koreas are the byproduct of the 2000 inter-Korean summit during which southerly Korean President Kim Dae Jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il pledg to work together to aid national reconciliation and cooperation.

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