DPRK premier visits China, economy in focus
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-03-22 14:18

North Korean Premier Pak Pong-ju began a visit to China on Tuesday to study the economic miracle wrought by his country's giant neighbor.

Analysts said, however, that with international efforts to reconvene crisis talks on North Korea's nuclear ambitions at a make-or-break stage, Pak can expect Chinese leaders to try to convince him of the need to return to the negotiating table.

North Korean Premier Pak Pong Ju, center, is escorted to a car on his arrival at Beijing airport Tuesday March 22, 2005. [AP]

His visit comes a day after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrapped up a 24-hour trip to China, ending an Asia tour aimed at reviving the stalled nuclear talks.

Rice gave her strongest hint yet on Monday that Washington might resort to sanctions against the North, telling a news conference in Beijing that it would have to consider other means if Pyongyang continued to prevaricate over the talks.

"The North Korean nuclear issue has arrived at a very key moment," said Zhang Liangui, a Korea specialist at the Chinese Communist Party's Central Party School.

He said Chinese leaders were likely to try to impress upon Pak the gravity of the matter and remind them that North Koreans were less secure with nuclear arms than without them.

Last month North Korea officially declared for the first time that it had nuclear weapons, saying it needed them to counter what it called Washington's hostile policies.

ECONOMIC FOCUS

Pak's Beijing agenda indicates that the thrust of the visit is largely economic. Before meeting his host, Premier Wen Jiabao, on Tuesday, he was to visit one of the biggest foreign-funded projects in the city, a giant Nokia facility in a technology zone.

The next day, before talks with President Hu Jintao, Pak is to visit the Yanjing brewery, China's third-largest beer maker.

On Thursday he travels to China's financial hub, Shanghai, for two days, and then visits the northeastern city of Shenyang before heading home.

North Korea analysts say Pak is an economics expert and the architect of plans to revive his country's moribund economy. He was appointed premier in September 2003.

North Korea has been toying with market-style reforms to its rigid state-run economy. Aid workers say the process has benefited some.

A year before becoming premier, Pak -- as chemical minister -- took part in an economic study tour of South Korea.

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