South Korea hopes Kim's China visit spurs arms talks
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-01-19 08:41

South Korea's foreign minister voiced hope on Wednesday that North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's visit to China would spur nuclear disarmament talks and had taught him something about economic reforms.

Ban Ki-moon, one of several candidates to succeed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, was commenting on Kim's just-ended China visit, which included a visit to a crop research institute.

"We hope the North Korean leader and senior officials of North Korea (have) learned good lessons from the reform and good economic development process of China," Ban told reporters.

Chinese President Hu Jintao (R) shakes hands with North Korea's Kim Jong Il at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, January 17, 2006. [Reuters]

North Korea has tinkered with market-style economic reforms and aid workers say some of the reforms have been at least partially rolled back. Agriculture is particularly inefficient.

Kim, who went to China from January 10 to 18 at the invitation of President Hu Jintao, said he would try to remove obstacles blocking six-party talks on the country's nuclear arms program, North Korea's KCNA news agency said on Wednesday.

Ban, after a meeting with Annan, said he was encouraged by the report that Kim had told Chinese leaders he would help restart the nuclear talks.

"We hope at this time that the six-party talks be resumed as soon as possible," Ban said.

The two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and China last met in November to discuss North Korea's agreement in principle to dismantle its nuclear arms in exchange for aid and security guarantees.

The talks are stalled over Pyongyang's demand that the United States ease its financial pressures against the North. Washington late last year banned American firms from doing business with a Chinese bank in Macao on suspicions it helped North Korea launder counterfeit money.

It also blacklisted eight North Korean companies suspected of aiding the north's nuclear weapons program.

Ban refused to discuss his candidacy for the top U.N. job when Annan's term ends at the end of this year, saying nothing was official yet. But he is known to have met ambassadors from Security Council powers who are crucial in making the decision.

An informal rotation tradition makes it an Asian's turn to become secretary-general. But both the United States and Britain have said candidates should not be limited to Asia.

"I understand that it is a general consensus among the member states of the United Nations that it is Asia's turn," Ban said.