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North Korea wants to talk, says China
A top Chinese Communist Party official who met North Korean leader Kim Jong-il this year said on Wednesday he believes the North wants to resume stalled six-party talks over its nuclear program. Six-party talks were the only "relatively good way" to find a solution and a new round as early as next month was possible, Wang Jiarui, head of the party's International Liaison Department, told Reuters in an interview. North Korea, once branded part of an "axis of evil" by the United States along with Iran and pre-war Iraq, withdrew from the six-party process after a third, inconclusive round in Beijing a year ago, blaming its move on U.S. hostility.
"According to our understanding of North Korea from exchanges with them, I think they are still willing to resolve the problem through talks," Wang said. North Korea declared in February this year that it possessed nuclear weapons. Wang, as an envoy of President Hu Jintao, met Kim in Pyongyang about a week after the announcement and expressed China's concerns. The talks have joined North Korea, South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia, but even if they resumed, there was no guarantee that all issues could be smoothed over, Wang said. "Although the six-party talks have been halted for a year, after all, things haven't developed in the direction of worsening. What people have worried about, such as an acute conflict, hasn't happened," Wang said. Wang declined to say if China believed North Korea already possessed nuclear weapons. South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young met Kim last Friday in Pyongyang and said he had told him North Korea was willing to return to the talks as early as July if the United States showed it respect. "GREAT DISTRUST" Wang said a July meeting could happen. "The possibility is there," he said. "As to when (specifically) it can happen still depends on the efforts of all the sides." The six-nation talks were "the only relatively good framework to solve the existing disputes," he said. "We believe this issue will be resolved in the end because we do not want to see a non-dialogue way of resolving the North Korean nuclear problem," he said. Even if the meeting could be arranged in July, it might not be able to resolve the dispute for good, he said, in part because of the lack of trust between Pyongyang and Washington. "It is not realistic to expect such a great distrust to be resolved in a short period of time," he said. "Even if the six-party talks are restarted, we cannot say the currently difficult North Korean nuclear issue could be resolved thoroughly." Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, in a meeting on Tuesday with visiting South Korean Premier Lee Hae-chan in Beijing, urged all parties to the talks to "take the opportunity and show more flexibility and sincerity." US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday North Korea was making excuses for not resuming the talks because it did not like being told what to do by the other parties. "North Korea is a sovereign country. It should make its own decisions in international affairs," Wang said. "I think they know what the international community is concerned about. "As to what measures China takes, we are a sovereign country, too. We know what we should do and what we should not do. We think China has been sincere about resolving the North Korean nuclear issue. We have done everything we can."
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