YONHAP NEWS

(3rd LD) N. Korean leader reiterates pledge to denuclearize Korean Peninsula: report

By Byun Duk-kun
SEOUL, Feb. 9 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has reportedly told a senior Chinese envoy that he remains committed to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, though it was unclear whether Kim indicated any clear intention to rejoin the stalled denuclearization talks.

   Kim's comments on his commitment in principle to denuclearization efforts are similar to earlier statements he has made. The latest remarks, which came during a meeting with a senior Chinese envoy, are drawing attention, however, as Kim sent his chief nuclear negotiator to Beijing following the meeting.

   The North's Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye-gwan, who serves as the country's lead nuclear negotiator, arrived in the Chinese capital on the same flight with the Chinese envoy, Wang Jiarui, who is head of the international department of the Communist Party of China. Wang headed back home after a four-day trip to Pyongyang that included a rare meeting with Kim Jong-il.

   Kim Kye-gwan, in his surprise trip to Beijing, is expected to hold discussions on the nuclear standoff with Chinese officials.

   According to China's official Xinhua news agency, the North's leader told Wang that Pyongyang's "persistent stance to realize the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula" remains unchanged. Kim also told the envoy that the "sincerity of relevant parties to resume the six-party talks is very important."

   But the news agency stopped short of saying whether the North's leader promised to rejoin the stalled six-nation talks on ending its nuclear weapons programs, which involve the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States. The talks have been deadlocked for more than a year.

   Xinhua also said Chinese President Hu Jintao extended an invitation to the North's leader to visit Beijing.

   Earlier in the day, Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency carried a report on Kim's meeting with Wang, saying that the Chinese envoy conveyed to Kim a "personal message" from the Chinese leader. The KCNA did not elaborate on its content.

   Adding to the flurry of diplomacy to jumpstart the nuclear talks, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's special envoy, Lynn Pascoe, was to fly to Pyongyang on Tuesday for a four-day trip in the U.N.'s first bilateral talks with the North since 2004. The nuclear dispute is expected to be on the agenda for his discussions with North Korean officials.

   In Seoul, a government official said the brisk diplomatic activities involving North Korea bodes well for the fate of the troubled six-way talks.

   "Those busy diplomatic efforts are a positive sign in international efforts to bring North Korea back to the six-party talks," the official told Yonhap News Agency, requesting anonymity. He added that the nuclear talks may be resumed at an early date, given the pace of diplomatic efforts.

   "It is hard to predict when the six-way talks will be resumed but it is clear that a positive mood is being created," he said.

   North Korea withdrew from the nuclear talks in April last year in anger over a U.N. rebuke of its long-range rocket launch widely condemned as a test of its missile technology. The communist regime conducted its second nuclear test in May and a series of banned ballistic missile launches in the following months.

   But since August last year, Pyongyang has tried to reach out to South Korea and the U.S. amid U.N. sanctions.

   The North now demands the lifting of sanctions as a condition for its return to the nuclear negotiations. The regime has also renewed its long-standing demand that the United States and other parties involved sign a peace treaty that will replace the 1953 armistice that ended the three-year Korean War.

   Kurt Campbell, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, just concluded a trip to Seoul and Tokyo to reconfirm that the three countries will not discuss easing U.N. sanctions on the North or a peace treaty to replace the Korean War armistice unless North Korea first returns to the six-party talks.

   U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley Friday praised China's effort to revive the nuclear talks.

   "The Chinese senior officials have regular discussions with North Korea," Crowley said. "We value that leadership by China."

   North Korea has been sending confusing signals, recently firing artillery rounds along its maritime border with South Korea while proposing talks with South Korea for joint projects. On Monday, the two sides held talks on ways to resume suspended projects for South Korean tourists to visit North Korean tourist sites, but the meeting ended without an agreement.

   U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Sunday said the Obama administration will continue engaging North Korea, which she described as "a nuclear-armed country," calling for the North's return to the denuclearization talks.

   "Engagement has brought us a lot in the last year," Clinton told CNN. "When we said that we were willing to work with North Korea if they were serious about returning to the six-party talks and about denuclearizing in an irreversible way, they basically did not respond in the first instance."

   bdk@yna.co.kr
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