North Korea's leader has apparently told a senior Chinese envoy he iswilling to resume talks to resolve the issue of Pyongyang's nuclearweapons.
China's Xinhua news agency says North Korean leader KimJong Il promises to work toward making the Korean peninsula free ofnuclear weapons. Mr. Kim also is willing to engage in what the reportdescribes as "bilateral or multilateral talks" to help push that goalforward.
Those comments, if accurate, would be the firstexplicit sign in months that North Korea is willing to resume diplomacyaimed at ending its nuclear weapons programs. Mr. Kim reportedly madethem to senior Chinese envoys visiting Pyongyang.
A North Koreanstate broadcaster says Mr. Kim met with Dai Bingguo, an envoy ofChinese Premier Hu Jintao. They held talks in a "cordial atmosphere"about continuing the North Korea-China friendship.
China's envoyto six-nation nuclear talks, Wu Dawei, also attended the meeting. Theoften-stalled six-nation talks also involve the United States, SouthKorea, Japan, and Russia. Earlier this year, North Korea declared thesix-party process "useless" and over with. It conducted its secondnuclear test in May.
South Korean officials caution againstinterpreting Mr. Kim's reported comments as a signal the North is readyto come back to the talks. The South's foreign minister, YuMyung-hwan, told business leaders in Seoul Friday that Pyongyang hasother ideas.
Yu says now that North Korea possesses nuclearweapons, Pyongyang intends to have U.S.-North Korea arms reductiontalks, which the U.S. cannot accept.
Washington has ruled outsuch arms reduction talks, which would implicitly recognize North Koreaas a nuclear weapons state. The United States and its regionalpartners say they will accept nothing less than a complete andverifiable end to North Korea's nuclear arms capabilities.
PresidentObama's administration has expressed willingness to talk to North Koreaone-on-one, but only in a context that is directly connected to thesix-party talks.
North Korea analysts here in the South Koreancapital find it significant that Mr. Kim's reported comments comeduring a visit from China. Beijing is the North's only significantally, and provides a lifeline of food, fuel, and resources to itshobbled economy.
Hong Hyun-ik is a North Korea researcher at the Sejong Institute in Seoul.
Hesays China felt the need to stop the North's nuclear activities fromgetting out of hand. He says Beijing also does not want to be isolatedfrom any one-on-one diplomatic arrangement between North Korea and theUnited States. So, China sent its envoy, says Hong, to remind Kim JongIl how crucial it is to the North's economic fate.