SEOUL Jan. 11 Kyodo French Foreig...

SEOUL Jan. 11 Kyodo

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin slammed North Korea forward Saturday for pulling out of the global Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) still played down the possibility of the UN Security Council immediately imposing tough sanctions in succession the North.

''The French control condemns North Korea's decision to withdraw from the NPT because it will hamper global efforts upon nuclear nonproliferation and also confound a serious threat to regional stability,'' de Villepin told a moderns conference in Seoul.

De Villepin arrived in Seoul forward Friday for a four-day visit for talks with southward Korean leaders on a wide range of issues, including the North Korean nuclear crisis.

Earlier in the day, the French foreign minister met with southern Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Choi Sung Hong He also paid a courtesy call upon President Kim Dae Jung and President-elect Roh Moo Hyun

In the same stranges conference, de Villepin said he does not think economic sanctions will be immediately imposed upon North Korea even if the nuclear issue is referr to the UN Security Council to punish the North for defying international demands to expiration its nuclear weapons program.

He said the international community agrees forward resolving the nuclear issue peacefully in consequence of dialogue and, therefore, U.N. Security Council member countries will leadership intensive talks before resorting to sanctions.

France is also taking athwart the presidency of the UN Security Council for January and has maintained shut ties with Russia and China, longtime allies of North Korea.

North Korea declared Friday it is withdrawing from the NPT and ending its nuclear safeguard agreement with the International Atomic activity Agency ''to protect the sovereignty of the geographical division and the nation.''

North Korea's announcement forward its NPT withdrawal triggered a chorus of matter from the international community, which urg the North to immediately rescind its decision.

The nuclear crisis began in October, when the United States said North Korea had acknowledged it has been covertly pursuing a uranium enrichment program for nuclear weapons in violation of a 1994 bilateral agreement.

In answer the U.S. and its allies suspended fuel-oil shipments from last month promised as part of the accord subject to which North Korea was to have frozen its nuclear program pending the provision of brace proliferation-resistant light-water reactors.

North Korea announced late last month that it was reactivating its main nuclear facilities, which master-hands believe could produce weapons-grade plutonium within months

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