China aims to kickstart N.Korea talks
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-10-17 14:57

China will try to nudge North Korea to resume stalled talks on ending its nuclear programmes when Pyongyang's number two leader visits on Monday, but economic issues will also be high on the agenda.

Kim Yong-nam's arrival will precede a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell to Japan, China and South Korea for talks on the nuclear crisis, media reported.

"The economic issue, I think, will be one of the most important issues," a diplomat who follows China's relations with the Korean peninsula closely said last week of Kim's visit.

"You can say that the two topics are the most important," he said, referring to economics and the nuclear talks.

Six-way talks aimed at resolving the nuclear crisis have been stalled since Pyongyang said it saw little point in talking unless Washington dropped its "hostile policy".

The standoff started two years ago when U.S. officials said North Korea had admitted to pursuing a secret uranium enrichment programme.

Analysts say most of those involved in the talks are quietly resigned to the fact that little progress will be made before the U.S. presidential election on November 2.

Still, China will push Kim to explain North Korea's game plan and try to convince him that stalling will hurt the North's bargaining position, said Zhu Feng, head of the international security programme at Peking University.

"The continuous refusal to talk probably will force Pyongyang into a corner," he said. "China really has to persuade Pyongyang of the danger of enduring refusal to talk. China now is trying to launch a new campaign of shuttle diplomacy."

Host China has shown its commitment to getting the six-way talks, which group the United States, North and South Korea, Japan and Russia, back on track.

Last week, it sent special envoy for Korean nuclear issues Ning Fukui to Seoul and Japan. He is also due to visit Washington and Moscow.

Kim is also scheduled to visit a science park in a Beijing district that has been dubbed China's Silicon Valley, the Foreign Ministry said. He would also tour Tianjin, where North Korean leader Kim Jong-il went when he was in China in April, the diplomat said.

Official Chinese statistics show trade between the China and North Korea grew more than 38 percent, or US$284.8 million, from 2002 to 2003, to reach US$1.023 billion. 

China is also North Korea's biggest source of fuel oil and aid, although no accurate statistics are available.

"It's definitely on the up," a businessman who travels to North Korea said of economic interaction with China.

"There is certainly more going on -- or at least the feeling that there is more going on."

A Chinese entrepreneur recently agreed to invest US$6 million to refurbish and run a department store in central Pyongyang.

And in July, North Korea broke ground on a glass factory donated by China.

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