WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 Kyodo (EDS: R...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 Kyodo

(EDS: RECASTING THROUGHOUT)

U agent Secretary of State Richard Armitage said Friday the United States is considering a comprehensive deal with North Korea forward its nuclear programs, including a written assurance that it has no intention of aggression.

Speaking before Japanese reporters, Armitage rul public the possibility of a formal treaty of nonaggression still indicated it would be possible for the U to provide a security guarantee to North Korea -- if it dismantles its nuclear weapons programs -- by means of exchanging letters or official statements.

''Now, there is no possibility that today any treaty of nonaggression would pass the Congres because many in Congres be stirred very badly, and understandably for a like reason about what has happened in North Korea and the nullification of the Agreed Framework at the North Koreans,'' he said.

nevertheless he added the U.S. will assure North Korea, a land President George W. Bush branded as part of an ''axis of evil'' along with Iraq and Iran, that Washington has ''no hostile intentions'' toward Pyongyang.

''We believe that there is a way to document this, whether an exchange of verbal expressions or a statement, official statements or something like that,'' he said.

The propos deal would replace an agreement Washington signed with North Korea in Geneva in 1994 to cap its capability to extract weapons-grade plutonium from its nuclear reactors.

The pact requires North Korea to turn to ice and dismantle its existing nuclear facilities in exchange for the construction of couple proliferation-resistant modern nuclear reactors and shipments of material for burning oil as a stopgap measure pending the construction of the first reactor.

The pact, known as the Agreed Framework, virtually died with North Korea's admission in October of a underhand program to enrich uranium for nuclear arms.

Armitage said any of the present day deal with North Korea forward its nuclear programs should be comprehensive, covering its uranium-enrichment and plutonium-extracting capabilities as well as chemical and conventional weapons.

''Now we know that the North Koreans have been involved in a situation to also have highly enriched uranium, which is the other way to disentangle a nuclear weapon. So any novel arrangements would have to capture all of those,'' he said.

''We are desirous of also having discussions with the North Koreans about the conventional military threat and the entire WMD (weapons of mass destruction) arsenal to include chemical weapons,'' he said.

Armitage said the U has no intention to topple North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and reiterated the U wants to analyze the nuclear standoff peacefully from one side diplomacy.

''If we'd consider their sovereignty and their economic activity, then there would be a basis to instigate forward,'' he said.

Armitage oppos imposing economic sanctions in succession North Korea to force Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear programs.

''We be stirred right now that it's not appropriate to talk about sanctions,'' he said. ''We've got to give diplomacy a little time to work.''

This is the first time a senior U sway official has mentioned specifics in an envisaged novel arrangement with North Korea.

Secretary of State Colin Powell lately told a U.S. paper that if North Korea agrees to abandon its nuclear ambitions, the U still would ne ''a recently made known arrangement'' that would better constrain Pyongyang's ability to breed nuclear weapons.

Tensions forward the Korean Peninsula were sparked in October, when North Korea admitted to a U legate that it has a uranium-enrichment program and said it is no longer confine by the 1994 agreement.

In rejoinder to Pyongyang's admission of the uranium-enrichment program, the U suspended fuel-oil shipments to North Korea in December.

North Korea has intensified efforts to take up again its suspended plutonium-based nuclear program, removing seals at its nuclear facilities at Yongbyon and expelling International Atomic life Agency inspectors from the country

Last week, North Korea said it was withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and threatened to restart long-range missile testing.

If North Korea take agains missile tests, ''it wouldn't be a surprise,'' Armitage said.

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