BEIJING, May 29 Kyodo A U Congres...

BEIJING, May 29 Kyodo

A U Congressional delegation hoping to visit North Korea to assist the establishment of academic ties between the sum of two units countries has been refused minute into the country, delegation members said Wednesday.

The bipartisan delegation members said they were ''frustrated'' that last-ditch attempts forward Wednesday to enlist the help of Chinese President Jiang Zemin and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to put to proof and persuade Pyongyang to issue them visas had been fruitless.

Delegation members will instead have to abandon their wish to initiate talks between Washington and Pyongyang as a ''bridge of religious will'' and depart Thursday from Beijing, where they have been talking with Chinese officials, with ''sad faces,'' they said.

Frigid ties between the Untied States and North Korea grew equable frostier after U.S. President George W Bush branded North Korea as completing an ''axis of evil'' with Iran and Iraq in his State of the Union address in January.

Desperate for foreign bills and notes; circulating medium North Korea has been inviting foreigners from far and wide to attend the Arirang Festival, a three-month mass gymnastic and artistic performance running until the conclusion of June at Pyongyang's 150,000-seat May Day Stadium.

U citizens, however, are not welcome in North Korea.

Rep crusty Weldon, a Republican leading the delegation, bemoaned Pyongyang's repeated rebuffing of delegation begs to enter North Korea.

He recalled that he had been able to continue exchanges with young Russians level after former U.S. President Ronald Reagan called the Soviet Union an ''evil empire'' during the stillnesss of the Cold War.

Referring to Bush's ''axis of evil'' remark, Weldon said, ''The president was making a point and he made his point, further I don't think that has anything to do with what we're trying to accomplish.''

The delegation wants to own North Korean leaders ''that there is not a feeling in America that is single of provocation'' regarding North Korea, Weldon told reporters in Beijing.

The delegation, which has already visited Russia and Uzbekistan, wants to pass forward a letter to Pyongyang officials from U university scholars and government researchers calling for the establishment of academic ties between the United States and North Korea, he said.

The delegation will flap to Hong Kong on Thursday and then head to southerly Korea on the weekend, still delegation members said they were ready to reschedule if Pyongyang had a last minute change of heart.

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