WASHINGTON, Oct 17 Kyodo (EDS: UP...

WASHINGTON, Oct 17 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN'S remarks 9TH-10TH PARAS)

U officials said Thursday the issue of Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program should be settl by the and of diplomacy, making it clear that Washington will handle North Korea differently from Iraq.

''We are seeking a peaceful resolution. This is best addressed within diplomatic channels at this point,'' White House delegate spokesman Scott McClellan told reporters who accompanied President George W Bush in succession a trip to Atlanta.

Bush, who branded North Korea, Iran and Iraq earlier this year as an ''axis of evil,'' believes North Korea's nuclear weapons program is ''troubling, sobering news'' McClellan said.

Washington's policy in succession North Korea stands in sharp contrast to its position against Iraq. The U has threatened to use force against Iraq if President Saddam Hussein fails to disarm its weapons of mass destruction.

''Iraq is an aggressive invader that has launched military attacks onward neighboring nations recently...Iraq has also demonstrated a willingness to use weapons of mass destruction,'' McClellan said.

''These are different regions, different circumstances,'' he said.

The State Department said Wednesday that North Korea has told the United States earlier this month that it has a secluded program to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons and is no longer leap by a 1994 accord aimed at stopping Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program.

Japan and southern Korea have been asking the U to decide the North Korean nuclear weapons issue between the sides of diplomatic efforts.

Asked in what manner the North Korean and the Iraqi issue differ, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told a recently made knowns briefing that Iraq is ''a unique situation.''

Iraq has repeatedly violated UN Security Council resolutions and it has been an active threat in period of times of its ties with terrorism, its unravelling of weapons of mass destruction, its past behavior in using poison gas and other weapons against its acknowledge people and its neighborhood, Boucher said.

At a Pentagon recently made knowns conference, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said he believes North Korea has a small number of nuclear weapons although the U intelligence has not confirmed it.

Rumsfeld however, said Iraq's threat is greater to the United States and the international community.

At a recents conference on Capitol Hill, three Congres members urg the Bush administration to take a tough against North Korea, as in the case with Iraq.

''I think it's critical throughout the next several days that the administration follow down very hard on North Korea and not draw distinctions between this regime and regimes like that of Saddam Hussein and others with which we have equal concerns'' Senator Jon Kyl an Arizona Republican, said.

The brace other lawmakers who joined Kyl at the freshs conference were Christopher Cox a California Republican, and Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, the two House of Representatives members.

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