China, N Korea in arms talks

Reuters

NORTH KOREAN LEADER: Kim Jong-il has said he could return to nuclear talks if the conditions were right.

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A senior Chinese Communist Party official will visit Pyongyang next week in what appears to be a move to press North Korea to return to stalled nuclear disarmament talks.

China, the destitute North's biggest benefactor, is seen as having the most influence on the reclusive state.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-il told the Chinese premier in October he could return to the nuclear talks if the conditions were right.

Communist Party international affairs chief Wang Jiarui is slated to make the visit, a diplomatic source in Beijing told South Korea's Yonhap news. He met Kim last year and received a denuclearisation pledge.

"It is part of an annual new year exchange but there may be some important change related to the six-party nuclear talks," the source was quoted as saying.

Analysts said pressure was mounting on the North to end its boycott, as UN sanctions imposed after its nuclear test last year have dealt a blow to its wobbly economy, and a botched currency reform measure undertaken late last year has deepened its economic woes.

North Korea has boycotted for a year the six-country talks aimed at ending its nuclear programme in return for aid and diplomatic rewards, but said it could return if Washington was willing to hold separate talks to reach a peace treaty.

North Korea says it was forced to build up a nuclear arsenal to defend itself from a hostile United States.

- AP