Hu calls for resuming Six-Party Talks

By Li Xiaokun (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-20 07:31

President Hu Jintao yesterday called for resuming the Six-Party Talks as soon as possible to ease rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula sparked by Pyongyang's satellite launch plan.

Hu made the remarks when meeting Premier of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) Kim Yong-il.

Premier Wen Jiabao said last Friday that the key to easing tensions is "positively pushing forward the Six-Party Talks".

Pyongyang had announced it would launch the satellite between April 4 and 8. Some countries claimed it will be a long-range missile test.

In response, Seoul and Washington began a joint military exercise on March 9, while Tokyo said it would deploy ballistic missile interceptors in case a DPRK rocket comes toward its territory.

Concerned countries are looking to Beijing, which enjoys a long-standing friendship with Pyongyang and plays a key role in the peninsula's denuclearization process, to ease the tension.

President Hu Jintao speaks with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's Premier Kim Yong-il at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing yesterday. [Wu Zhiyi/China Daily]

Hu told Kim China hoped to join other countries to "properly settle the existing differences". The talks stalled last year over discussions about how to verify the DPRK's nuclear activities.

Seoul's Yonhap News Agency yesterday cited an unnamed source in Beijing as saying Kim's visit is partly to prepare for the DPRK's top leader Kim Jong-il's visit to China.

The Foreign Ministry did not comment on the matter.

The DPRK's premier, however, extended regards from Kim Jong-il to Hu at the beginning of their meeting.

Chinese leaders have invited Kim Jong-il to visit China after his country's newly elected parliament holds its first session, Yonhap said. The session is expected to start in early April.

Kim Jong-il has visited China four times since 1990, with the latest trip in 2006.

Piao Jianyi, chief of the Center of Korean Peninsula Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the Six-Party Talks is key to soothing regional frictions.

A landmark agreement the six nations signed in 2005 has laid the foundation for settling major issues, including denuclearization, and the establishment of diplomatic relations between Pyongyang, and Washington and Tokyo, he said.

Piao said of Kim Jong-il's potential visit that Hu had asked Wang Jiarui, head of the International Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, who visited Pyongyang at the beginning of this year, to deliver a letter to Kim, inviting him to visit China. And Kim "accepted the invitation", he said.

Beijing prefers the visit take place after April 15, the DPRK's late leader Kim Il-sung's birthday, he said.

He also said Pyongyang is very interested in Premier Wen's suggestion of enhancing economic cooperation, made when the two premiers met on Wednesday.

While no economic agreements were announced during the visit, Kim has brought DPRK ministers of the metal industry, agriculture and trade.

Piao, who recently undertook a study tour in Northeast China, which borders the DPRK, said: "Major moves in trade and mineral exploitation cooperation may take place this year. Both sides are preparing for that."

Zhang Xin contributed to the story