SEOUL, South Korea -China urged the United States and North Korea yesterday to be more flexible in trying to resolve their nuclear standoff after communist leader Kim Jong Il said his government would return to six-party disarmament talks if Washington shows sincerity and meets his conditions.
Kim said in a rare comment on the nuclear dispute that his government remained committed to a peaceful solution.
We will go to the negotiating table anytime if there are mature conditions for the six-party talks thanks to the concerted efforts of the parties concerned in the future
the reclusive leader told a visiting Chinese envoy, according to Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency. He expressed the hope that the United States would show trustworthy sincerity it said.
KCNA did not elaborate on what conditions Kim cited to the envoy from China, his impoverished country's only remaining major ally.
Only 12 days earlier, North Korea had flouted Washington and its allies by claiming it had nuclear weapons and rejecting any further meetings over the issue, saying it needed the arms to protect itself against an increasingly hostile United States. That claim could not be independently verified.
During three rounds of six-nation talks in Beijing since 2003, North Korea has demanded more aid and a peace treaty with Washington in exchange for giving up its nuclear program -measures it apparently hopes will guarantee the survival of Kim's regime.
The talks -which include the United States, the two Koreas, China, Russia and Japan -have made little progress amid deep distrust between Washington and Pyongyang. The United States -which once labeled North Korea part of an axis of evil with Iran and prewar Iraq -wants a verifiable nuclear freeze and dismantling of weapons as part of any deal.
North Korea says it remains convinced Washington wants to topple its regime.
Kim spoke of his government's new position Monday in a meeting with Wang Jiarui, the head of the Chinese Communist Party's International Department, KCNA said.
Russia's ITAR-Tass news agency reported that Kim also told the Chinese envoy that a resumption of the six-party negotiations depended on changes in Japan's position.
It quoted an unidentified source close to the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang as saying that Kim complained to Wang that Tokyo was blocking the talks by demanding a settlement of a dispute over North Korea's kidnapping of Japanese citizens more than 25 years ago. North Korea insists the issue has been fully settled, but Japan is demanding a full accounting of the kidnap victims, some of whom Pyongyang says have died.
Akira Chiba, a Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said Japan had not been informed of any such comments by Kim.
U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill, recently named the top U.S. delegate to the six-party talks, called for unity in negotiating a resumption.
What we want to do is to make sure we are coordinated Hill said. Any activities by any of us within this process are not ones that can be used by North Korea to divide us.
Both China and South Korea urged the United States and North Korea yesterday for more flexibility in the 2-year-old confrontation.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan said the standoff was at a crucial juncture
and urged both the United States and North Korea to demonstrate more sincerity and flexibility.
Though China helped defend North Korea in the 1950-53 Korean War, Beijing worries that a nuclear-armed North would raise tensions in the region and prompt Japan and South Korea to develop atomic weapons.
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