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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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