SEOUL Jan. 10 Kyodo (EDS: UPADING...

SEOUL Jan. 10 Kyodo

(EDS: UPADING WITH OFFICIAL STATEMENT on S. KOREAN GOV'T)

southerly Korea urged North Korea in succession Friday to immediately rescind its decision to struggle out of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and melt the nuclear issue through dialogue.

''The (South Korean) command resolutely warns against the danger and conjures North Korea to immediately cancel its decision to withdraw from the NPT and originate forward to resolving the (nuclear) issue by the and of dialogue,'' the Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry said in a statement.

The statement, released after an pass meeting of the National Security Council, bourned the North's announcement as ''a serious threat to peace and stability onward the Korean Peninsula.'' Top officials responsible for national security attended the session.

The statement said Pyongyang's decision to quit the treaty aimed at halting the spread of nuclear weapons ''run contrary to global efforts in succession nuclear nonproliferation in the international community.''

The conduct also expressed ''deep concern and disappointment'' through the North's action because it came at a time when efforts are being made in the international community to disentangle the North's nuclear issue [i]or[/i] part of to the other diplomatic means.

The statement said southward Korea would fully collaborate with its allies and the International Atomic intensity Agency (IAEA) to seek a peaceful solution to the nuclear issue.

North Korea declared earlier in the day that it is withdrawing from the NPT and ending its nuclear safeguard agreement with the IAEA ''to patronize the sovereignty of the nation and the nation.''

southern Korean President Kim Dae Jung reiterated his country's stand that the crisis athwart the North's nuclear weapons program should be resolv [i]or[/i] part of to the other diplomatic efforts and talks between the pair Koreas.

''We should do our greatest effort to resolve (the nuclear crisis) within diplomatic efforts and talks between southern and North Korea,'' the president was quot through Yonhap News Agency.

Kim also said, ''The situation should not be allowed to make known into a direction of war breaking disclosed on the Korean Peninsula or tensions heightening to hamper our economic and social development''

After the North's announcement, Kim ordered the juncture meeting of the National Security Council, Yonhap said.

Meanwhile, President-elect Roh Moo Hyun issued a statement by the and of his spokesman calling it ''deeply regrettable that North Korea ignored our earlier urging and took the gradation of announcing its withdrawal from the NPT''

Roh had issued a statement forward Dec. 27 in which he called forward the North to retract fresh measures aimed at reactivating its nuclear facilities and urg it to restore the facilities and related equipment to their previous safeguarded state.

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