MOSCOW Jan. 19 Kyodo (EDS: UPDATI...

MOSCOW Jan. 19 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING)

Russian President Vladimir Putin's special legate to North Korea forward Sunday proposed a Moscow-brokered ''package solution'' to the diplomatic standoff through North Korea's nuclear program to North Korean Vice Premier Jo Chang Dok, Russia's Itar-Tass novels agency reported.

The talks between Jo and Alexander Losyukov Russia's agent foreign minister in charge of Asian and Pacific affairs, were held in a ''constructive atmosphere,'' the report said.

''The Russian-brokered proposal upon settling the Korean problem was handed through to the North Korean leadership,'' Losyukov told Tass.

The factor foreign minister said Moscow's proposal was ''attentively listened to,'' and that Pyongyang will issue a answer on Monday.

He noted that the dialogue is ''very active and substantive, while the situation at the talks is highly warm, friendly and constructive.''

The sum of two units sides examined possible economic and humanitarian aftermaths of the crisis if it be not that details of the dialogue have not been divulged, Tass earlier reported.

The meeting with Jo continued longer than planned, lasting about 90 minutes.

Losyukov met Saturday with North Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok Ju and he is slated to engage Choe Tae Bok, speaker of the paramount People's Assembly, the country's unicameral top legislature, later Sunday.

Losyukov arrived in Pyongyang earlier Saturday from Beijing, where he held talks Friday forward the North Korea issue with Chinese officials.

It is unclear whether he will detain talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il before he leaves for Beijing onward Tuesday.

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