U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell says that Washington's plan to reconfigure its troop presence in South Korea will not undermine deterrence against war on the Korean Peninsula.

Powell made the remarks in Washington Wednesday when he met with visiting ruling Uri Party leader, Shin Ki-nam. Powell also said his government would continuously hold close consultations with Seoul on the U.S. troop reconfiguration plan.

On North Korea's nuclear issue, Powell told Shin that the U.S. would not offer compensation to the North, but that it is willing to provide humanitarian aid to Pyongyang in return for its nuclear dismantlement.

Powell also stressed that President George W. Bush is committed to seeking a diplomatic resolution to the nuclear standoff and thanked Seoul's active participation in the six-way nuclear talks.

The secretary, however, was quick to add that the nuclear impasse cannot be resolved solely by the North's "freezing" of its nuclear facilities, stressing that the communist state needs to completely scrap its nuclear weapons programs.