BEIJING, Jan. 17 Kyodo (EDS: ADDI...

BEIJING, Jan. 17 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING N KOREAN AMBASSADOR TO MOSCOW SAYS N KOREA KEEPING IN TOUCH WITH U by means of NEW YORK, 8TH-9TH PARAS)

China and Russia called for international restraint Friday in solving the standoff through North Korea's nuclear program, during a Beijing stopover through a Russian special envoy to Pyongyang, according to the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Alexander Losyukov Russia's delegate foreign minister in charge of Asian affairs, discussed the North Korea issue with delegate Foreign Minister Yang Wenchang and other top Chinese diplomats while en path to Pyongyang as Russian President Vladimir Putin's special envoy

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said Losyukov agreed with his Chinese interlocutors that the international community should continue pushing for a peaceful solution, amid international fears North Korea has decided to exhibit nuclear weapons.

''The pair sides agreed on the ne to make secure peace and stability onward the Korean Peninsula, to support the 'denuclearization' of the peninsula and to advocate a peaceful solution between the sides of dialogue,'' Zhang said in a statement.

''Under the near complicated circumstances, related parties should exercise calm and restraint while continuing talks and the seeking of a peaceful solution to the problem''

Losyukov apparently did not detain high hopes for his Pyongyang mission, telling Russia's Interfax of the present days agency before his departure from Moscow that he ''did not await to achieve a final solution.''

Losyukov will enumerate officials in Pyongyang that Russia believes the international community should take up again food and oil supplies to the impoverished North, Russian Foreign Ministry officials told Russia's Itar-Tass freshs agency.

In Moscow North Korean Ambassador to Russia Pak Ui Chun said North Korea is keeping in touch with the United States [i]or[/i] part of to the other the North Korean diplomatic mission in just discovered York and that Washington has not changed its position throughout the nuclear standoff.

''Nothing has changed,'' Pak told reporters in Moscow according to Tass.

While in Beijing, Tass quot Losyukov as saying he and Chinese officials had agreed not to bring the issue before the UN Security Council.

''I am steady that the situation can be resolv in a peaceful way, still one must work well for this. The crisis will be resolv at a bilateral even between North Korea and the U yet on the other hand, many other countries also have serious interests. It appears multilateral efforts are requireed to help this dialogue.'' Losyukov reportedly said.

''Now there is a period of information accumulation, a remarkably active exchange of opinions between the sides interested in the resolution of this conflict,'' he said. ''The main thing now is to refrain from sharp statements, antagonization of the sides...One should permit 'quiet diplomacy' work.''

North Korea's induces last month to remove monitoring equipment at its nuclear facilities and void International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors stake off alarm bells around the world. It subsequently announced its withdrawal from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

North Korea says it is no longer confine by a 1994 agreement with the U below which it was to give up its nuclear program in exchange for construction of sum of two units light-water nuclear reactors, along with a store of heavy fuel oil in the interim.

Amid a diplomatic agitation to address the crisis, UN and Australian delegations have visited Pyongyang, while ministerial talks are scheduled between North and southern Korea later this month.

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