Fitch Ratings said Tuesday that it is considering raising the sovereign rating on South Korea as geopolitical risks in the Korean Peninsula have been eased following the North Korea¡¯s agreement to scrap its nuclear program.

The U.K-based agency has placed the Korea¡¯s long-term foreign currency ``A¡¯¡¯ rating on ``rating watch positive,¡¯¡¯ heightening hope that a rating hike will be made in the foreseeable future.

The agency said that Korea¡¯s ratings could be upgraded following a review of the agreement announced at the six-party talks on Monday in which North Korea committed to ending its nuclear weapons program.

``This is the first significant agreement to emerge from the six-party talks and it goes some way to addressing our concerns regarding the security threat posed by North Korea,¡¯¡¯ said James McCormack, head of Asia Sovereigns at Fitch.

``It effectively precludes any immediate referral of the issue to the United Nations Security Council, which could have resulted in the imposition of economic sanctions and a further heightening of tensions,¡¯¡¯ he added.

But the agency pointed out that although the announcement itself was a positive development, many of the details are yet to be worked out and much will depend on North Korean implementation, which has been unreliable following previous agreements.

Fitch kept Korea¡¯s national credit rating at ``A¡¯¡¯ with a stable outlook for three straight years since it last raised the rating to ``A¡¯¡¯ from ``BBB+¡¯¡¯ in June 2002.

The Ministry of Finance and Economy (MOFE) said Tuesday that the successful six-party talks have cleared the way for international rating agencies to upgrade the sovereign ratings in the near future.

The ministry said that the Fitch¡¯s move has raised hope that the nation¡¯s sovereign rating will be raised to ``A plus,¡¯¡¯ the level one notch below the one prior to the 1997 financial crisis.

The ministry said that Standard and Poor¡¯s (S&P;) and Moody¡¯s Investors Service are also likely to raise their credit ratings as they have cited the North¡¯s nuclear brinkmanship as the biggest risk to the Korean Peninsula.

In July S&P; S&P; raised Korea¡¯s sovereign credit rating by one notch to ``A¡¯¡¯ from ``A minus,¡¯¡¯ citing a stronger banking sector and a flexible monetary stance, setting the ratings outlook at stable.

``Future movement of Korea¡¯s sovereign rating will be determined by developments in North Korea,¡¯¡¯ the rating agency said in the statement.

The U.S.-based Moody¡¯s has kept Korea¡¯s rating at ``A3¡¯¡¯ since March 2002, when the agency raised the ratings by two notches from ``Baa2.¡¯¡¯

The successful multinational negotiations are expected to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula and give further momentum to the South-North economic cooperation development project.