Beijing: China asked ally North Korea to improve its strained ties with longtime foes the United States and South Korea, state media reported on Monday, as US and North Korean diplomats began talks about restarting negotiations on the North's nuclear programmes.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told visiting Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang that North Korea hopes the six-party talks on the country's nuclear issue "should be restarted as soon as possible," China's official Xinhua News Agency reported.
Neither Xinhua nor the North's official Korean Central News Agency elaborated on their meeting.
For his part, Li told North Korean Premier Choe Yong Rim on Sunday that improving ties with the US and South Korea would promote stability in the region, Xinhua reported.
Li's message seemed intended to further diplomacy on North Korea's nuclear program that is already under way and to enhance China's role in it. Li's three-day trip to North Korea will be followed immediately by a two-day visit to South Korea, underscoring Beijing's good ties with both Koreas and its desire to revive the stalled six-nation disarmament negotiations.
The US and North Korean diplomats are meeting in Geneva on Monday and Tuesday to talk about restarting the negotiations, which also include South Korea, Japan, Russia and China. North Korea walked out of the talks in 2009 and exploded a second nuclear test device but now wants to re-engage.
Li told the North Korean premier that China supports North Korean efforts "to take the right direction for engagement and dialogues, resume the six-party talks at an early date," Xinhua reported.
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