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Kim promises to push forward talks
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-01-19 06:24
Kim Jong-il, the top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea
(DPRK), pledged to push forward nuclear talks during his China trip, which was
confirmed Wednesday after a week of media speculation.
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President Hu Jintao
accompanies Kim Jong-il (right), the top leader of the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea, on a visit to the Crop Research Institute under the
Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Beijing on
Tuesday.[Xinhua]
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At a summit with President Hu Jintao, Kim said his country "will stick to the
goal of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and fulfil the joint statement
issued in the fourth round of Six-Party Talks."
"The DPRK's stance on promoting Six-Party Talks remains unchanged," Kim was
quoted by Xinhua as saying.
He said the DPRK is willing to work with China to overcome difficulties in
the talks.
Kim's trip coincides with negotiators launching a flurry of diplomatic
contacts to revive the Six-Party Talks, which began in 2003.
The other participants in the talks are the United States, the Republic of
Korea, Japan and Russia.
The US envoy on the DPRK's nuclear programmes, Assistant Secretary of State
Christopher Hill, met Chinese officials yesterday amid reports that he also had
a meeting with his DPRK counterpart to revive the disarmament talks. Hill said
no date has been set for resuming the talks.
Pyongyang agreed in September to give up its nuclear programme in exchange
for aid and security assurances. But discussions have stalled since November
after Washington imposed sanctions on the DPRK for alleged counterfeiting and
other government-directed wrongdoing.
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