Chinese envoy meets North Korean officials amid int’l efforts to revive nuclear talks

Chinese envoy meets North Korean officials

SEOUL, South Korea — A special Chinese envoy met North Korean officials at the start of a visit to Pyongyang, state media reported Sunday, amid international efforts to persuade the North to rejoin nuclear disarmament talks.

Wang Jiarui, head of the liaison office of China’s ruling Communist Party, met North Korean Workers’ Party officials over a banquet Saturday, according to the North’s Korean Central News Agency. The North Koreans included Kim Yong Il, chief of the party’s international department, it said.

KCNA did not say what was discussed. South Korean media, including the Yonhap news agency, have reported that Wang’s trip appears aimed at pushing the North to rejoin stalled six-nation talks on dismantling its nuclear program in return for aid and other benefits.

Wang is expected to meet leader Kim Jong Il during his four-day trip, Yonhap reported Sunday, without citing any source.

Last year, North Korea walked out of the disarmament talks — held with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States — in anger over international condemnation of a long-range rocket launch. The country later conducted a nuclear test, test-launched a series of ballistic missiles and restarted its plutonium-producing facility, inviting widespread condemnation and tighter U.N. sanctions.

China is North Korea’s biggest trading partner, a key aid donor and a longtime ally dating to the 1950-53 Korean War. Its influence is seen as crucial in getting the North to return to the disarmament talks.

Wang met Kim during a January 2009 trip to Pyongyang, during which the North Korean leader said his country was “dedicated to the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula” and wanted to move the international talks forward, according to Beijing’s Xinhua News Agency.

Wang’s trip comes amid international efforts to jump-start the six-party talks, with special U.N. envoy B. Lynn Pascoe stopping in Seoul over the weekend en route to North Korea.

North Korea has said its return to the six-nation talks hinges on the lifting of the international sanctions and building better relations with the U.S.

However, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Kurt Campbell told reporters in Seoul last week that no discussion about political or economic sanctions can take place before the disarmament talks are back on.