Cheongwadae announced Tuesday that there will be a comprehensive security meeting on Thursday with officials and ministers from the Ministries of Unification, National Defense, and Foreign Affairs and Trade, to discuss measures in dealing with the current North Korean nuclear crisis. President-elect Roh Moo-hyun is also to be present at the meeting.

President Kim Dae-jung told a cabinet meeting it was worrying that the North Korean nuclear problem was being exacerbated daily, adding that everyone was urging the North to give up nuclear development, but Pyongyang was not listening.

Kim said he was prepared to cooperate in improving North Korean and American relations and making North Korea a responsible member of the international society. However, he continued he would never abet in the development and usage of weapons of mass destruction. Kim noted that this condition was stipulated from the beginning of inter-Korean cooperation and documented many times, but "things have now come to this."

(Kim Min-bae, baibai@chosun.com )