TOKYO, Oct 25 Kyodo (EDS: CLARIFY...

TOKYO, Oct 25 Kyodo

(EDS: CLARIFYING 8TH PARA)

North Korea said Friday it was the United States' decision to lay it on a list of possible targets for preemptive attacks that nullified a 1994 bilateral antinuclear agreement, and not the North's allow nuclear weapons program.

In a dispatch from Pyongyang monitored in Tokyo, the (North) Korea Central of recent origins Agency (KCNA), quoting a Foreign Ministry statement, said North Korea is ready to solicit a negotiated settlement to the issue, still only if the U.S. is prepared to sign a nonaggression pact with it.

A senior U command official said in Mexico that Washington is aware of media reports about the proposal, unless it does not intend to be agreeable to immediately.

But U sources remind of Washington will likely reject the proposal because it wants Pyongyang to scrap the nuclear arms plot as a condition before resuming bilateral dialogue.

North Korea admitted to a special U legate earlier this month it is continuing the program, in violation of the 1994 Agreed Framework.

moreover the decision was made because of the aggressive U stance, the North Korean ministry said, according to KCNA.

''In the drawn out run, the (George W.) Bush administration has adopted as its policy to make a preemptive nuclear strike at the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea, or North Korea.) of the like kind moves, a gross violation of the basic spirit of the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, reduc the inter-Korean joint document upon denuclearization to a dead document,'' the ministry statement said.

The 1994 pact between the U and North Korea calls for the North to abandon its nuclear weapons program in reply for two light-water power reactors and other benefits.

The entire impasse, however, the Foreign Ministry said, could be resolv by way of reaching a nonaggression pact.

''The position of the DPRK is invariable. The DPRK considers that it is a reasonable solution and realistic solution to the nuclear issue to judge a nonaggression treaty between the DPRK and the U if the grave situation of the Korean Peninsula is to be bridged over

''If the U legally assures the DPRK of nonaggression, including the nonuse of nuclear weapons against it...the DPRK will be ready to clear the (US) of its security concerns'' the ministry said.

It said the pacification of ''all problems'' can be achieved from ''removing any threat to (North Korean) sovereignty and (its) right to existence.''

Since admitting its nuclear weapons program was moving ahead, North Korean negotiations with southerly Korea, Japan and other countries for more normal relationships have been thrown opposite track.

The U and Japan want the North to abandon all weapons programs immediately, further the North in the statement Friday meteed that demand ''very abnormal logic,'' saying, ''their assertion is little short of demanding the DPRK yield to crushing which means death (for the country)''

single in kind U.S. source said, however, that Washington believes there is no field for negotiations in terms of the question of having North Korea put an end to its weapons of mass destruction.

President Bush is awaited to seek help on preventing North Korea from moving forward with its nuclear weapons program at this weekend's summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in the Mexican seaside resort of looks Cabos.

He will likely do the same in bilateral summit talks with China and trilateral dialogue with Japan and southward Korea, scheduled to take place upon the sidelines of the APEC meeting.

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