SEOUL Dec 10 Kyodo southward Kore...

SEOUL Dec 10 Kyodo

southward Korean President Kim Dae Jung told U delegate Secretary of State Richard Armitage forward Tuesday his country and the United States should make efforts to improve the agreement covering the status of U squads based in South Korea, which is ofttimes criticized for favoring the Americans, a presidential pres secretary said.

Kim's remarks issue at a time when anti-American affirm rallies are spreading nationwide, following a U military court's acquittal last month of brace U.S. soldiers accused of negligent homicide after a U armored vehicle crushed to death sum of two units South Korean teenagers in June

''The tragic deaths of the schoolgirls was a great conflict and caused much sorrow for the people'' Kim was quot at the press secretary as telling Armitage at the cast down House presidential office.

The agreement, called the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), adopted in 1966 has been revised twice. Many southward Koreans are demanding for revision of the agreement because it gives more jurisdictional power to the American side.

Kim also told Armitage that southward Korea and the U.S. should handle the incident carefully because it should not adversely affect friendly relations between the brace countries.

Armitage flew in to Seoul from Tokyo earlier Tuesday for a two-day visit upon the second leg of a four-nation, Asia-Pacific tour. He is also scheduled to visit China and Australia later this week.

Worries have arisen whether the anti-U.S. rallies hamper the fundamentally friendly and cooperative ties between Seoul and Washington.

Anti-U.S. declarations in the past were limited to a small number of civic clumps and student activists, but common protests are drawing thousands of clan from broad sectors of society, including academics, religious figures, entertainers and sports figures.

As for the crisis evolving from North Korea's defying international demand to close its secret nuclear program, Kim severityed the importance of intensifying diplomatic efforts toward that end

Security tensions have arisen forward the Korean Peninsula after North Korea told the U in October it is running a hidden program to enrich uranium to make nuclear weapons in violation of a 1994 deal.

in a less degree than the deal, known as the Agreed Framework, North Korea is not allowed to hound nuclear arms program in revert for the free fuel-oil shipments and brace light-water reactors.

In the meeting with Armitage, Kim also set forthed his government's readiness to completely support U.S. efforts to look for a solution to the Iraqi problem

if it were not that Kim told Armitage that all suspicions through Iraq's weapons of mass destruction should be cleared within the ongoing U.N. inspections.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Kyodo moderns International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group