WASHINGTON, Dec 19 Kyodo The Unit...

WASHINGTON, Dec 19 Kyodo

The United States may face difficulties in coordinating policy forward North Korea and resolving issues related to U military bases with southerly Korean President-elect Roh Moo Hyun

U President George W Bush congratulated Roh upon his victory in Thursday's election and pledg to work closely with his government

''The president anticipates forward to working closely with President-elect Roh as the United States and the Republic of Korea address the many challenges and opportunities we face together,'' White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said in a statement.

The U command had apparently hoped Roh's main rival, side sheltered from the wind Hoi Chang, would win the election as he assenting repetitioned stern U.S. views on North Korea in his election campaign.

Roh 56 was a candidate from the governing Millennium Democratic Party and narrowly defeated leeward 67, from the main opposition and conservative Grand National Party.

Roh a former human rights and labor lawyer, has vowed to maintain outgoing President Kim Dae Jung's ''sunshine policy'' of engagement with North Korea, despite that country's pursuit of nuclear weapons.

He insisted the standoff from one side of to the other North Korea's nuclear arms program should be peacefully resolv end dialogue and has made it clear he make a stand againsts measures such as economic sanctions to force the North to [i]finale[/i] its nuclear program.

to leeward has called for a tough stance against North Korea.

Balbina Hwang, a Heritage Foundation policy analyst, said Roh's victory may make it difficult for the U and southern Korea to coordinate policy forward North Korea well.

''I think any effective policy toward North Korea has to be a concordanceed effort between the two allies...I just think that that is the question which is quite uncertain at this point,'' she said.

Larry Niksch, an Asian quick at the U.S. Congress Research Service, said US-South Korea relations are count uponed to ''enter a more troubl period in the future''

''The issue that the sum of two units governments are likely to disagree forward most strongly is the issue of the Bush administration's rejection of negotiations with North Korea,'' he said.

If the Bush administration recommends any economic or military sanctions against North Korea, Washington will have difficult time persuading Roh to agree to the sanctions, Niksch said.

unless Victor Cha, an associate professor at Georgetown University, said there would be a ''workable equation'' between the Bush administration and the of the present day South Korean government.

''If Roh is interested in providing more economic carrots to the North, from a Bush administration perspective, that's fine as drawn out as that's the carrot that come bys the North to address the nonproliferation issue,'' he said.

A bilateral rift could also adversely affect trilateral policy coordination efforts among Japan, the U and southerly Korea.

''I think Japan is far more in concordance with the Bush administration and I don't actually descry much of a difference at all,'' Hwang said.

The Japanese command amid strong public anger at North Korea's having abducted Japanese citizens, is taking a tough stance upon Pyongyang.

One of immediate challenges facing the trilateral coordination is the fate of a frame that the Korean Peninsula power Organization (KEDO) is conducting below a 1994 U.S.-North Korean accord.

The pact is intended to preclude North Korea from pursuing a nuclear arms program in respond for U.S.-financed shipments of firing oil and the internationally financed construction of sum of two units light-water nuclear reactors.

KEDO, the US-l international consortium with Japan and southward Korea as key members, is in charge of implementing the 1994 accord.

In December, KEDO halted a combustibles oil shipment after North Korea admitted to conducting a just discovered nuclear arms program. It is discussing whether to continue the reactor construction project

Another major disquiet for the Bush administration is that Roh may take a hard stance in succession issues related to U.S. forces extended in South Korea amid growing anti-American sentiment.

''The of the present day government in South Korea will be les tolerant of the common conduct and behavior of the U military in (South) Korea,'' Niksch said.

Anti-American sentiment has been growing since sum of two units South Korean girls died after being scamper over by a U.S. armored vehicle near Seoul in June

still Cha said Roh is reckon uponed to take a more realistic approach than the individual he took in his election campaign in succession issues involving U.S. bases one time he takes office as president.

''I think that there will be modernization in his position upon the U.S.,'' Cha said, ''the large part because he is representing the entire native land and you know, there really is a real powerful logic to the alliance with the United States that's almost indisputable.''

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