SEOUL, South Korea - South Korean President Kim Dae Jung said yesterday that pressure and isolation would not persuade North Korea to end its nuclear arms program, pointing up the South's differences with the United States.

"Pressure and isolation have never been successful with Communist countries; Cuba is one example," Kim told his Cabinet in remarks tailored for an American audience.

The United States has announced a plan of political and economic pressure against North Korea to try to force it to halt its renewed nuclear arms efforts.

But yesterday in Washington, the Bush administration suggested that the pressure would be accompanied by diplomatic engagement. State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said the administration was "prepared to pursue a bold dialogue aimed at having a better relationship with North Korea."

South Korea will begin a diplomatic drive to try to resolve the issue, Kim announced. Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Tae-shik will go to Beijing this week, and Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hang-kyung will go to Moscow the next week for consultations, he said.

"We will work closely with our allies to solve this Korean peninsula problem, and we will firmly oppose North Korea's nuclear arms program, but no matter what, we will pursue a peaceful solution," he said. "We cannot go to war with North Korea, and we can't go back to the Cold War system and extreme confrontation."

Yesterday's statement highlighted the growing rift between the United States and South Korea, long a close ally.

Diplomatic efforts

In Washington, the State Department said James A. Kelly, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, would travel to South Korea and other countries in the region to discuss ways of countering the new nuclear threat from North Korea.

Reeker said Secretary of State Colin L. Powell spoke about North Korea over the weekend with the Australian foreign minister, Alexander Downer; with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan; and yesterday morning with Foreign Secretary Jack Straw of Britain.

Reeker said the United States would wait until the International Atomic Energy Agency met on Jan. 6 before deciding whether to bring the North Korean situation before the U.N. Security Council. He said there was no suggestion by anyone in the administration that the United States would impose new sanctions on North Korea. "At this point, nobody has talked about sanctions," he said.

Reeker denied there was any emerging rift between the United States and South Korea, noting that the departing and incoming presidents both have endorsed the policy of putting pressure on the North to abandon its nuclear weapons program.

Russia, long an ally of North Korea, warned yesterday against withdrawing from the international agreement to halt the spread of nuclear weapons. "Pyongyang's recent decisions to send away IAEA inspectors and prepare for renewal of the uncontrolled work of its nuclear energy complex cannot but elicit regret," said Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.

Mikhail Lysenko, director of the Foreign Ministry's security and disarmament department, warned North Korea against withdrawing from the treaty. He said that Russia supports the 1994 agreement and insists on a "constructive dialogue" among all involved and that Moscow was consulting with both Koreas, the United States, Japan and China.

Strained relations

North Korea revealed recently that it was starting a program to produce nuclear arms. Then it said it would reactivate a nuclear facility, removed monitoring devices and ordered U.N. inspectors to leave. South Korea's statement yesterday pointed up the growing rift between the United States and South Korea, long a close ally.

Angry demonstrations against the American military here are revealing a broader strain of anti-American feelings, especially among young people.

South Koreans can rattle off a string of American slights and insults: a Winter Olympics medal taken away from a South Korean skater, a joke in poor taste on an American television show, a lukewarm reception given their president in Washington last spring and the daily friction of 37,000 American troops in one of the world's most densely populated nations.