Kim Jong-Il Wants to End Nuclear Standoff

From the Washington Post January 18 2006

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il said he is committed to a peaceful resolution of the standoff over his country's nuclear ambitions, as Pyongyang confirmed Wednesday that the reclusive Kim had visited China over the past week.

The trip _ widely reported in South Korean media but previously not confirmed by either Beijing or Pyongyang _ had raised expectations of a resumption of stalled six-nation talks on the North's nuclear programs.

Kim's trip ended the same day the main U.S. nuclear envoy was in Beijing to meet with Chinese officials over the nuclear issue. News reports said Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill also talked with his North Korean counterpart, but Hill made no mention of any such meeting, and said no date had been set for the arms negotiations to resume.

During Kim's visit, North Korea and China "unanimously agreed to consistently maintain the stand of seeking a negotiated peaceful solution" to the nuclear issue, the North's official Korean Central News Agency reported.

However, Kim also mentioned "difficulties" facing the talks. The North has refused to return to the negotiations unless Washington ends financial sanctions imposed over Pyongyang's alleged illegal activities. U.S. officials have rejected the demand, saying the matter is a criminal issue unrelated to the nuclear talks.

In September, the North agreed to abandon its nuclear programs in exchange for aid and security guarantees. Talks have been stalled ever since.

Kim called for a joint effort with the Chinese "to overcome the difficulties in the six-way talks and to find a way to move forward," according to KCNA.

Chinese President Hu Jintao reiterated that the nuclear issue should be resolved at the six-party talks, which also include South Korea, Japan and Russia, Chinese state media reported.
"Describing the six-party talks as an efficient mechanism to solve the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue appropriately, Hu reiterated China's principled stance, noting that it is a correct choice to properly settle the relevant problems by peaceful means through dialogues," the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Hill gave no details of his meetings with Chinese officials during his daylong visit to Beijing.
According to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency, Hill also held a meeting in the state guesthouse with his North Korean counterpart, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan. The talks were mediated by Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, Yonhap said.

"They had lunch together and discussed the nuclear issue," an unidentified source was quoted as saying by Yonhap.

A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said she had no comment on whether Hill met with North Korean officials.

Hill was wrapping up an Asian tour that included stops in Japan and South Korea.

KCNA said Kim was in China on an "unofficial visit" from Jan. 10 through Wednesday at Hu's invitation. Kim rarely leaves the country and only then under tight security, shunning air travel in favor of trains.

On Wednesday, a train believed to be carrying Kim crossed into North Korea around 10 a.m. after a 20-minute stop at the Chinese border city of Dandong, South Korea's Yonhap News Agency reported.

Kim said he told Hu during their meeting in Beijing about his "impressions of his visit to the central and southern parts of China where the cause of modernization is being successfully carried out," according to KCNA.

South Korean and Japanese media had reported that Kim spent nearly a week in the heart of China's booming south, touring high-tech companies in a possible search for ideas to revive his nation's economy.

China has normally refused to give information on his visits to the North's last major ally until after his departure.

On Wednesday, state television devoted 10 minutes of its nightly news to coverage of Kim's trip. Footage showed Kim and Hu smiling and shaking hands as they posed for photographers. Kim was dressed in his usual gray Mao-style tunic and was sometimes shown bundled in a khaki jacket.

Although his trip was not officially acknowledged until Wednesday, Kim didn't travel inconspicuously. He took over an entire luxury hotel in the southern city of Guangzhou and traveled by 30-car motorcade. A Japanese TV network showed what it said was Kim on a river cruise.

Kim last visited China in 2004. In 2001, Kim visited Shanghai, the heart of communist China's experiment with capitalism. He toured its stock exchange, a software firm and joint-venture auto and electronics factories.

Kim Jong-Il Visits China

From the Washington Post, January 18 2006

BEIJING -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il finished a secretive nine-day visit to China on Wednesday after reaffirming his government's commitment to six-nation talks on dismantling its nuclear weapons program and pledging to work with the Chinese to "overcome the present difficulties" in the negotiations.

Ending more than a week of official silence on the trip, Chinese and North Korean state media said Kim left the country after touring six cities and meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing. It was their second summit meeting in four months, suggesting the two nations, longtime allies, were seeking to narrow their differences in the stalled nuclear talks.

Kim's departure was announced the same day the chief U.S. negotiator, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, made an unexpected trip to Beijing and met with his North Korean counterpart, Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan, in a session hosted by the Chinese, diplomats said.

Hill, who also visited Beijing last week during an Asian tour that included stops in Japan and South Korea, declined to say whether he met with the North Koreans. "We had a meeting hosted by the Chinese. I talked to the Chinese. It was a good discussion. There is no development, nothing to report," he told reporters at the airport before leaving.

State-run China Central Television broadcast footage of Kim Jong Il shaking hands and meeting with Hu and other senior Chinese leaders. Wearing a gray tunic suit and sometimes a khaki jacket and sunglasses, the reclusive North Korean leader was also shown visiting an agricultural research center, factories and ports, and riding a subway.

The 10-minute report said Kim toured the cities of Wuhan and Yichang in central Hubei province and Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai in southern Guangdong province, and that he praised the stunning economic progress achieved by China's market reforms.

The visit, which began Jan. 10, was Kim's fourth to China since 2000, and it again raised the possibility that he is considering major economic reforms similar to those adopted by China. In line with past practice, neither China nor North Korea confirmed the trip until after Kim's departure.

In his meeting with Hu, Kim "spoke of the difficulties lying in the process of the six-party talks" but said North Korea remained committed to negotiating a peaceful settlement and a nuclear-free Korean peninsula, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. Kim also reaffirmed a September agreement in which North Korea promised to disarm in exchange for aid, diplomatic recognition and security guarantees.

Negotiators have not worked out a plan to implement that deal, and North Korea has refused to return to the talks unless the United States ends a crackdown on firms suspected of involvement in alleged North Korean counterfeiting, smuggling and drug trafficking operations.
State media in China and North Korea made no mention of the demand in their coverage of Kim's visit. Official reports in both countries said only that Kim pledged to work with China to "overcome the present difficulties encountered by the six-party talks."

China has not taken a public position on the North Korean demand, and there was no sign Hu said anything on the matter in official media reports. The official New China News Agency said Hu reiterated his support for the six-nation talks, which China hosts and which include the United States, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas.

State media also did not say whether Hu agreed to provide North Korea's feeble economy with more aid. But Kim was quoted thanking Chinese leaders "for rendering disinterested assistance" to North Korea "each time it faced difficulties."

China is the North's only close ally and its main source of fuel and other aid. Chinese sources say major aid packages are usually promised when the leaders of the two countries meet, including during Hu's visit to Pyongyang in October.

Asian diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said any economic aid could ease the pain of the U.S. crackdown on North Korean finances and help persuade Kim to return to the talks. U.S. action against a bank in the Chinese territory of Macau in September led authorities there to freeze several accounts believed to contain funds used by Kim and his family, the diplomats said.