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Chinese envoy meets Pyongyang official: state radio
SEOUL, Feb. 7 (Yonhap) -- A senior Chinese envoy visiting Pyongyang has met with a top official of the North Korean Workers' Party, state media reported Sunday.
Wang Jiarui, head of the Chinese Communist Party's International Department, and his delegation arrived in Pyongyang on Saturday in what many analysts believe is a trip aimed at persuading the North to rejoin stalled six-party nuclear disarmament talks.
Wang met with Kim Yong-il, director of the international affairs department of the Workers' Party, in a reception hosted by the department that day, the North's Korean Central Broadcasting Station radio said.
Also present the dinner were Kim's deputy Kim Song-nam and other party officials, it added.
Participants toasted for the "continuous strengthening and development of the traditional friendly ties" between the two countries, the radio station reported without giving details.
During the four-day trip, Wang is widely expected to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and deliver a message from Chinese President Hu Jintao. The Chinese official visited North Korea and met Kim in January last year as part of a regular exchange visits.
Wang's expected meeting with Kim will be closely watched because it may lead to the North's return to the six-nation nuclear negotiations, which also involve South Korea, the U.S., Japan, China and Russia.
North Korea quit the six-party talks in April last year, angered by U.N. Security Council sanctions imposed on it over its nuclear and missile tests.
But the North Korean leader told visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao later last year that his country may return to the talks following bilateral dialogue with the United States.
A special U.S. representative for North Korea policy, Stephen Bosworth, visited Pyongyang in December but Pyongyang has yet to declare its return to the six-party talks.
sshim@yna.co.kr
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