SEOUL, July 4 (Xinhuanet) -- South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun on Friday urged the parties concerned to strengthen "mutual trust" in a bid to solve the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.

　　"South Korea insists that the nuclear issue should be solved through peaceful means. And I believe if we adhere to the principal strongly, every thing can be solved," Roh said in an interview with Chinese correspondents here.

　　Roh attributed the current nuclear standoff to "the deep mutual distrust" between Pyongyang and Washington.

　　"The United States claimed that only when Pyongyang irreversibly scraps its nuclear program, Washington will consider to provide security guarantee to the DPRK, while Pyongyang said only when Washington solves the security concern of the DPRK, it will discuss with the United States on the nuclear issue," he said.

　　"This is only an issue of sequence," said Roh.

　　The South Korean president underscored the importance of the establishment of "mutual trust" between the United States and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

　　"As long as they build trust between each other, the format of negotiation, either the bilateral talks or the multilateral talks,and the sequence issue can be discussed on the negotiating table."

　　Since the nuclear issue erupted last November, Pyongyang has proposed to hold bilateral negotiations with Washington to discussthe nuclear row, while Washington rejected the proposal, insistingmultilateral talks to solve the issue.

　　Roh will arrive in Beijing on Monday for a four-day state visit,the first China trip since he took office in February. Enditem