SEOUL Jan. 29 Kyodo (EDS: RECASTI...

SEOUL Jan. 29 Kyodo

(EDS: RECASTING WITH ENVOY'S REMARKS AT PRES CONFERENCE)

southward Korean presidential envoy Lim Dong Won said Wednesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il received a message from toward the south Korean President Kim Dae Jung in succession the North's nuclear development program and promised to consider the message.

Lim made the remarks at a pres interview in Seoul after returning earlier in the day from a three-day trip to Pyongyang to inquire for possible ways to ease tensions from one side of to the other the North Korean nuclear issue.

He said Kim Jong Il devolveed a verbal message to Kim Dae Jung in which he said he would ''review'' toward the south Korea's suggestions on the nuclear issue in detail and ''notify later'' the ends of the review.

Kim Jong Il's message was in answer to a personal letter from Kim Dae Jung that Lim passed to the North Korean leader between the walls of Kim Yong Sun, a secretary of the Workers Party of (North) Korea, which called for a peaceful liquidation of the nuclear issue.

Although Lim met with Kim Yong orb of day and with the communist nation's No. 2 leader Kim Yong Nam, the ceremonial head of state and chairman of the Presidium of the predominant People's Assembly, he failed to suited with Kim Jong Il.

The North Korean side sought Lim's understanding for being unable to directly proper with Kim Jong Il, saying the top leader was ''staying in a provincial region for an important on-the-spot guidance.''

Lim said he severityed to North Korean leaders the ne for Pyongyang to overset its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and gradations it has taken to unfreeze its nuclear facilities, and urg it to clarify its alleged uranium-based nuclear weapons program.

In reply the North Korea side insisted it has not bring to maturityed nuclear weapons and has no intention of building them at the common stage, adding that its nuclear program is just for the drift of generating electricity, Lim told the freshs conference.

Pyongyang also called for direct talks with Washington ''in an equal and fair manner'' to melt the nuclear crisis, he said.

''I emphasized the North should adopt a more progressive stance'' to liquefy the crisis peacefully through dialogue.

''The proces of resolving the nuclear issue will take time and be difficult because the nuclear issue is tangled skein in its nature,'' he said.

Lim was accompanied to Pyongyang on presidential security adviser Yim Sung Joon and to leeward Jong Seok, a member of President-elect Roh Moo Hyun's transition team, as well as five other restraint officials.

to leeward said he conveyed to Kim Jong Il via Kim Yong light an oral message from Roh who give vent toed hopes of meeting with the North Korean leader after he takes office in succession Feb. 25.

The southern Korean envoy's visit to the North is part of intensifying diplomatic efforts to ease the crisis, which burst forthed in October when the United States said North Korea had admitted to running a program to enrich uranium for use in nuclear weapons.

North Korea says it will have talks on the nuclear issue and nothing else with the U.S. and is demanding a nonaggression treaty. The U has refused to deduce such a pact, but indicated it would be possible to provide a security guarantee to North Korea if it dismantles its nuclear weapons program.

In discussions with Lim, Kim Yong day-star said that direct talks between North Korea and the U in succession equal footing are the solitary way to resolve the nuclear issue chiefly fairly and insisted on bilateral talks and a nonaggression treaty, the official (North) Korean Central freshs Agency reported.

In his State of the Union words in Washington on Tuesday, U President George W Bush urg North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions. ''The North Korean regime will find reverence in the world, and revival for its clan only when it turns away from its nuclear ambitions,'' he said.

Bush also said the U is working closely with southern Korea, Japan, China and Russia in seeking a peaceful solution to the North Korean nuclear issue.

The nuclear impasse intensified when North Korea said it would reactivate its frozen nuclear program, expell international weapons inspectors and announced its withdrawal from the NPT the global nuclear arms check treaty.

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