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China plays down DPRK visit delay

By Zhang Haizhou and Zhang Xin (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-03 07:25

China has postponed a senior official's visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), but Beijing's policy toward Pyongyang has not changed, the Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

Chen Zhili, vice-chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, had been scheduled to visit the DPRK this month, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a regular briefing.

But "Chen has postponed the visit to the DPRK due in early June because of the schedule at home", Qin said, without saying when the trip may take place.

In an earlier report, the Yonhap news agency from the Republic of Korea (ROK) quoted unidentified diplomatic sources in Beijing as saying China "halted" plans to send officials to the DPRK after Pyongyang conducted a nuclear test and fired short-range missiles.

"The move, if confirmed, would be the strongest reaction yet to the DPRK's actions by its biggest ally and trading partner," said the Bloomberg news agency.

But Qin denied China had suspended government exchanges with its neighbor.

"There's always usual personal exchanges between China and the DPRK," he said.

The Chinese embassy to the DPRK also dismissed the report, saying it was "inaccurate".

"We are as busy as we were, in general," Xie Bo, head of the embassy's political department, told China Daily.

Following the DPRK's nuclear test last week, the ROK said it would join the Proliferation Security Initiatives (PSI), a US-led program.

Pyongyang responded by abandoning the truce signed in 1953 to end the Korean War, and threatened to attack if Seoul tried to search DPRK vessels under the PSI program.

China has not taken part in the PSI. Qin pointed out Tuesday that the program risked departing from international law.

"China understands the PSI member countries' concerns about proliferation and approves the PSI's intent of anti-proliferation, but we express concern about the possibility of it taking action entirely outside of international law," he said.

Qin said Beijing has always worked for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the stability of Northeast Asia.

"This position is clear and consistent," he noted.

But some analysts said Beijing may need to review its policy toward its neighbor, which depends on China for up to 90 percent of its oil and for much of its food aid.

The DPRK's recent moves have "severely harmed China's interest", said Shi Yinhong, an expert in international security at the Renmin University of China.

Though the principle of China's policy toward Pyongyang will not change much, "there will be some adjustments according to what the DPRK does", Shi predicted.

Pang Zhongying, an expert in international studies at Renmin University of China, said Beijing would need to have "a brand new and comprehensive strategy toward the DPRK".

"I can feel that China has already felt how severe the situation is," Pang said, adding that it is becoming increasing difficult to achieve denuclearization in the Korean Peninsula.

But Liu Jiangyong, a professor of Northeast Asia studies at Tsinghua University, predicts no real change in China's policy.

If China joins other nations in coming down harshly on Pyongyang, he told the Washington Post, Beijing's role "will be changed from a contact man to the enemy of the DPRK".

It is in everybody's interest for China to keep a steady relationship with the DPRK, he added, because otherwise no country will have regular contact with Pyongyang.

'Convincing response'

China and Russia want a "convincing response" to North Korea's nuclear test from the United Nations Security Council, Russia's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

"Sergei Lavrov and Yang Jiechi expressed their common opinion on the necessity of a convincing response from the Security Council, on the inadmissibility of ignoring the UN Security Council's resolution and the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," the Russian ministry said in a statement.

A phone conversation took place between the two ministers on Monday at the request of the Chinese foreign minister, the statement said.

Reuters contributed to the story