BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Yonhap) -- North Korea's top diplomat spoke in an unusually high-pitched tone to his Chinese counterpart during bilateral talks last month as he protested a Chinese media report critical of Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, a source familiar with the issue said Monday.

   North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-chun held talks with his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi for about an hour on July 11, ahead of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum in Cambodia, also known as ARF.

   "During the talks, Pak raised his voice at Yang, calling on him to clarify the government's position regarding the Global Times editorial. The meeting almost turned into a venue for quarrel," a source from China familiar with the issue told Yonhap News Agency.

   Beijing is Pyongyang's key communist ally.

  


The Global Times, an English-language Chinese newspaper under the People's Daily, said in its June 2 editorial that China should express objection to North Korea codifying nuclear weapons possession in its constitution.

   The paper raised concern that the North's move could lead ultimately to South Korea, Japan and Taiwan taking similar steps, triggering a chain reaction of nuclear armament in Northeast Asia.

   In its revised constitution, the communist North proclaims itself as a nuclear armed state, according to its full text monitored by Yonhap News Agency in May on the North's "Naenara" Web site.

   The editorial by the Global Times, one of China's leading newspapers, was the first unofficial response from China about the issue, as the Beijing government has remained silent on it so far.

   When Pak urged Yang to make it clear if the Chinese government shares the same opinion with the newspaper on the matter, the atmosphere "turned sour, causing China to fail to even raise the agenda on its territorial disputes in the South China Sea with ASEAN countries for which it has sought support from the North," the source said.

   While media of the two countries did not mention the incident, with Pak not speaking to reporters after the talks, the state-run Xinhua News Agency only said the meeting served as a venue for recognizing the importance of promoting their relations.

   The source also said there has been little progress in relations between the two countries under the North's new leader Kim Jong-un, who took the helm of the country after his father's death in December.

   But chances are that exchange and cooperation could become more active, experts say, citing that Kim Jong-un met with Wang Jiarui, the head of the International Liaison Department of China's Communist Party, in Pyongyang last week, during which Wang stressed the Chinese policy to strengthen the long-time ties between the two countries.

   graceoh@yna.co.kr
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