SEOUL - Kim Jong-il, the leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), said Pyongyang remains committed to nuclear disarmament, Pyongyang's official media Korean Central News Agency reported on Saturday.

During a visit this week to Beijing, he also said ties with China will be unchanged by the "replacement of one generation by a new one," amid reports he is paving the way for his son to take control of the country.

The DPRK, which has tested two nuclear bombs, last year bolted from Six Party Talks but in remarks reported Saturday, Kim "expressed the DPRK's willingness to provide favorable conditions for the resumption of the six-party (disarmament) talks."

He said the DPRK "remains unchanged in its basic stance of preserving the aim of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, implementing the joint statement adopted at the Six Party Talks and pursuing a peaceful solution through dialogue."

The comments, carried by DPRK state media Korean Central News Agency, came with the first confirmation by Pyongyang of Kim's secretive five-day trip to China.

Professor Koh Yu-hwan of Dongguk University said Pyongyang was unable to promise to return to the talks in more explicit terms due to the unexplained sinking of a Republic of Korea (ROK) warship near the border with the DPRK in March.

The ROK and the United States indicated that the resumption of talks with the DPRK, along with China, Russia and Japan, should wait until the outcome of an investigation into the sinking, which killed 46 sailors.

"This is a step forward for the DPRK, which in the past said it would not come to the dialogue table unless its demands for a peace treaty with the US and the lifting of UN sanctions were met," Koh said.

Victor Cha, who holds the Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC, said it was "very hard to tell" the road ahead following the Hu-Kim summit.

"Beijing may hope it can convince the DPRK to return to Six-Party Talks, but at this point - with the ship sinking incident unresolved - it is hard to imagine either Seoul or Washington being interested in such a return to the table. Denuclearization remains the paramount goal, but the unprecedented nature of the ship sinking makes it difficult to conduct diplomacy as usual," he said.

A latest report on the Korean Peninsula from the Center for Strategic and International Studies suggests that China, the ROK and the US should reduce their mistrust and promote cooperation on regional stability and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsular.

Without coordination of an effective response to possible instability in DPRK, the countries most directly involved - China, the ROK and the US - are unlikely to build the understanding necessary to stabilize the region and lay the basis for cooperative security over the long term, the report said.

"There are a lot of suspicions among the three countries," said Bonnie Glaser, a senior fellow with the Freeman Chair in China Studies and one of the two authors of the report.

"They may think there are more risks in the cooperation than the benefits."

Referring to close ties with Beijing, Kim made comments likely to stoke speculation that he is grooming his third son, Jong-un, for succession, when he said the bilateral friendship will remain unchanged "despite the passage of time and the replacement of one generation by a new one."

Professor Kim Yong-hyun, also of Dongguk University, said expressions of bilateral friendship lasting for generations are common at summits between the two countries.

"However, it's noteworthy that this was repeated as the DPRK is believed to be raising Jong-un as an heir," he told AFP.

Succession speculation has intensified since Kim senior, 67, reportedly suffered a stroke in August 2008. He is widely thought to have chosen Jong-un to inherit power.

Agence France Presse,

Tan Yingzi in Washington contributed to the story.

(China Daily 05/10/2010 page11)