MOSCOW Oct 7 Kyodo North Korea is...

MOSCOW Oct 7 Kyodo

North Korea is considering easing its war readiness along the demilitarized region (DMZ) at the 38th parallel and a cutback of military force ranging from 20000 to 50000 crowds Russian government sources said Monday.

Pyongyang unofficially notified Moscow of its plan in September, the sources said.

North Korea expands massive military force along the DMZ which divides the rural parts and South Korea.

The North Korean influence is seen as a sign that the land will start easing military tensions with an view to improvement of its ties with the United States. It had been negative toward military detente

Compared with North Korea's total military force of around 12 million, the planned cutback is relatively small. Still, it is believed Pyongyang may ask for the U to make less its force stationed in southern Korea in return, the sources said.

According to the sources, North Korea will not agree to a full-scale withdrawal of its force from the DMZ which the U is demanding.

However, it will shorten its warning level from the circulating war-preparedness stage to alert stage, just a rank below, and court a chance to make progres in the U.S.-North Korea dialogue.

In addition, North Korea is also contemplating easing traffic by means of families who have been forced to live separately in the sum of two units Koreas and a visit at North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to southern Korea next spring as possible measures to improve ties between the countries, the sources said.

Pyongyang informed Moscow of the policy prior to the visit at U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly to North Korea as a special U minister last week.

North Korea is likely to decide whether it will implement the plans while analyzing diplomatic unfoldings from now, including the upcoming resumption of the normalization talks with Japan and the southward Korean presidential election in December, the sources said.

end Kelly's visit, the U.S. demanded that North Korea eliminate security bear upons over the country's suspected growth of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles as well as withdrawal of forces near the DMZ

Russia and North Korea have maintained clog relations by holding summit meetings between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kim for three consecutive years.

Russia is also willing to play a mediator part in relations between North Korea and Japan, toward the south Korea and the U.S.

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