SEOUL – China’s prime minister will visit reclusive North Korea early next week for a trip that could help revive talks with global powers stalled for nearly a year on ending Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions.
Analysts said China, the closest North Korea has to a major ally, would not send such a high-profile visitor unless it had won some assurance from Pyongyang that could ease tension over the nuclear standoff.
Wen Jiabao “will pay an official goodwill visit” to North Korea from October 4th-6th, the North’s KCNA news agency said in a one-sentence dispatch yesterday. China’s foreign ministry confirmed the trip, which coincides with the 60th anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two nations.
The South’s Yonhap news agency quoted diplomatic sources in Beijing as saying there could be an announcement during Wen’s visit about the dormant six-country disarmament-for-aid talks hosted by Beijing.
“There probably will be significant talks between Wen and leader Kim Jong-il, not only on their relations, but of events over the Korean peninsula and nuclear arms,” said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the South’s University of North Korean Studies.
The sputtering talks between the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the US ground to a halt about a year ago, with Pyongyang saying it would boycott the sessions until Washington dropped its “hostile” attitude.
The nuclear talks were high on the agenda when the foreign ministers from China, Japan and South Korea met in Shanghai yesterday. Leaders of the three are expected to meet on October 10th.
Earlier this month, Kim Jong-il told a visiting envoy from China that he would work to end his state’s nuclear arms programme through multilateral talks. Statements from Kim almost always lead to action and analysts say he likely wants a return to some form of discussions. They also expect Pyongyang will hold true to form by making denuclearisation pledges and not meeting them.
North Korea in recent months has reached out to the international community after being hit with UN sanctions for a nuclear test in May. The sanctions were aimed at cutting off the vital flow of hard currency from the North’s arms sales.
North Korea has also revised its constitution in recent months to eliminate communism as a guiding ideology, while elevating Kim’s principle of putting the military first as the main pillar of his rule.
While Pyongyang has been sending out conflicting signals, it has been steadily improving ties with the South, which once provided aid equal to about 5 per cent of the North’s economy.
President Lee Myung-bak, who took office in February 2008, angered the North by ending massive rice aid and other unconditional handouts, saying Seoul would tie its largesse to disarmament steps its neighbour makes.
In a move that has eased tensions, the North allowed the resumption of reunions on the weekend for families separated by the 1950-53 Korean War. Pyongyang had suspended the highly emotional meetings after Mr Lee was elected. North Korea indicated it was expecting a show of “goodwill” from the South for restarting the reunions.– (Reuters)