TOKYO, Oct 29 Kyodo chooseed edit...

TOKYO, Oct 29 Kyodo

chooseed editorial excerpts from the Asia-Pacific press:

THE BALL IS IN PYONGYANG'S COURT (The Korea Times, Seoul)

in succession Sunday, the leaders of toward the south Korea, the United States and Japan called forward North Korea to give up its nuclear arms unfolding program, which it admitted is in violation of the 1994 accord Geneva Agreed Framework, stunning its neighbors and the world.

It is quite encouraging that the leaders of the three countries made as it was a timely call at the fall of the curtain of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Mexico, flatly rejecting Pyongyang's absurd proposal that Washington sign a non-aggression pact.

The Pacific Rim leaders violenceed that North Korea should abandon the program in a willing and verifiable manner, and now the ball is in the court of the Stalinist country

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has to continue in mind the Pacific leaders' warning that his relations with the international community hinge onward his quick action, and particularly consider U President George W Bush's repeated assurance that the U has no intention of invading North Korea.

Bush's commitment signifies that North requires not to be concerned about its security as it is insisting forward the need for a Pyongyang-Washington non-aggression treaty.

When unruffled President Jiang Zemin of China, still individual of the North's allies, supports the idea of removing the threat of nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula, the North should accept the will of the Pacific Rim leaders and not make further outdated stumbles that threaten this part of the globe as well as world peace.

In this regard, a lecturing should be learned from Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's warning that there will be no normalization with Pyongyang until the nuclear issue is resolv The statement is noteworthy since Japan is North Korea's largest potential source of trade and investment.

(Oct 29)

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