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South Korea will consider establishing an independent organization to deal with arms control on the Korean Peninsula in accordance with development in inter-Korean relations, the Defense Ministry said Tuesday.

"One thing I can say is that if the South-North Korean relations develop, the Defense Ministry will consider setting up an organization corresponding to the situation," Ministry spokesman Kim Hyung-gi said without specifying the timing.

"Working-level consultation is under way on how to connect the changing inter-Korean relations with arms control."

Kim was responding to the report by a local daily, The Seoul Shinmun, that the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae is preparing to create the body next month to keep up with the development of inter-Korean relations.

President Roh Moo-hyun made a three-day visit to Pyongyang last week to sign a joint declaration with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il on the North's denuclearization, a peace regime to replace the fragile armistice and other rapprochement measures.

Critics have argued that South Korea's one-sided disarmament might jeopardize its security with its archrival, nuclear-armed North Korea, having neither to clearly show its intentions to abandon its nuclear arsenal nor to agree on disarmament of conventional weaponry.

The Roh administration, which have engaged the communist North despite Pyongyang's detonation of a nuclear device late last year, slashed the mandatory military service to 18 months for the coming years from the current 24 months, citing the inter-Korean detente and the need to focus on a technology-oriented military rather than on manpower.

Still, the North's commitment to arms control is in question, with its leader Kim Jong-il favoring a gradual move towards disarmament of the two Koreas.

Briefing reporters on the results of the second-ever inter-Korean summit in Pyongyang last week, Defense Minister Kim Jang-soo said the North Korean leader rejected Roh's offer of discussing ways of removing troops and weapons deployed along their heavily fortified border.

The 243-km-long and four-km-wide Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), originally intended to serve as a buffer zone, is studded with hundreds of combat-ready guard posts on each side.

"The issue was off the table, as Chairman Kim Jong-il said it was still premature to have it discussed," said the minister, who accompanied Roh to the summit.

South Korean media had widely expected the leaders to discuss how to turn the DMZ into a peace zone during the rare summit, but their declaration did not mention it.

SEOUL, Oct. 9 (Yonhap)