North Korea (Superthread)

[CougarKing]

Bad news for this dictator.

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/090712/world/international_us_korea_north_kim

North Korea leader Kim Jong-il has pancreatic cancer: report

45 minutes ago

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has pancreatic cancer, South Korean broadcaster YTN said on Monday in an unsourced news flash.

Kim's health is one of the most closely guarded secrets in the reclusive communist state.


(Reporting by Jack Kim, Editing by Dean Yates)

 

[Sonnyjim]

Anybody know the lifespan of somebody that contracts pancreatic cancer? I'm sure he'll be spending whatever it takes to make sure he has the best treatment available, but just curious.

 

[dapaterson]

An interesting report on the hermit kingdom.  Despicable, amoral and (well, I would say criminal, but that's far too tame a word).

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2009/07/20097165415127287.html

...
But among the accounts they carried with them is one of the most shocking yet to emerge – namely the use of humans, specifically mentally or physically handicapped children, to test North Korea's biological and chemical weapons.

...

The former military captain says it was in the early 1990s, that he watched his then commander wrestle with giving up his 12-year-old daughter who was mentally ill.

The commander, he says, initially resisted, but after mounting pressure from his military superiors, he gave in.

Im watched as the girl was taken away. She was never seen again.

One of Im's own men later gave him an eyewitness account of human-testing.

Asked to guard a secret facility on an island off North Korea's west coast, Im says the soldier saw a number of people forced into a glass chamber.

"Poisonous gas was injected in," Im says. "He watched doctors time how long it took for them to die."

Other North Korean defectors have long alleged that the secretive nation has been using political prisoners as experimental test subjects.

Some have detailed how inmates were shipped from various concentration camps to so-called chemical "factories".

 

[CougarKing]

A few more notable updates on the diplomatic front:

Agence France-Presse - 7/23/2009 8:20 PM GMT
Clinton trades jibes with 'no friends' North Korea
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday that North Korea had "no friends left" to defend it from nuclear sanctions, triggering vitriolic defiance from the Stalinist regime.

Pyongyang hurled invective at "schoolgirl" Clinton and declared disarmament talks dead, as she told Asia's largest security forum that international efforts to squeeze the North over its atomic programme were paying off.

"They have no friends left that will protect them from the international community's efforts to move toward denuclearisation," Clinton told the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum (ARF) in Phuket.

"I was gratified by how many countries from throughout the region stood up and expressed directly to the North Korean delegation their concern over the provocative behaviour we have seen over the past few months."

In Phuket, Clinton has met counterparts from China and Russia, two other ARF heavyweights that have traditionally been lukewarm about forthright action against North Korea.
North Korean delegates appeared agitated as they tried to organise a rare news conference just before Clinton was supposed to speak in the press area of a seaside hotel in the Thai resort island of Phuket.

Regime officials described Clinton's renewed offer of a package of incentives in return for disarmament as "nonsense," and lambasted the top US diplomat as unintelligent, a "funny lady" and a "primary schoolgirl."

"Hearing about the comprehensive package, I should say this is basically nonsense," roving ambassador Ri Hung-Sik said, vowing no dialogue until Washington changed its "deep-rooted hostile policy."

"The six-party talks are already dead," Ri added, referring to negotiations with the United States, Russia, China, Japan and South Korea which Pyongyang quit after the UN Security Council censured it for a rocket launch in April.

North Korea then conducted an underground nuclear test in May, triggering a Security Council resolution for beefed-up inspections of shipments going to and from the country and an expanded arms embargo.

Pyongyang's state media took an even more venomous line against Clinton, who earlier this week said the North Koreans were acting out like "unruly teenagers."

"Sometimes she looks like a primary schoolgirl and sometimes a pensioner going shopping," a foreign ministry spokesman was quoted as saying in attacking her "vulgar" remarks.

Meanwhile, the State Department hit back Thursday saying the unflattering characterizations of Clinton might better describe the regime in Pyongyang itself.

"What is vulgar is that the North Korean government chooses to harvest missiles rather than enough food for its people," declared State Department Philip Crowley in defense of his boss.

"And what is unintelligent is the path that the North Korean government has chosen. It's a dead-end which dooms the North Korean people to a dismal future," he said.

Clinton outlined possible incentives for North Korea including "significant energy and economic assistance," but only if it agreed to "full and verifiable denuclearisation."

"In short, our approach isolates North Korea, imposes meaningful pressure to force changes in its behaviour and provides an alternative path that would serve everyone's interests."

Clinton ramped up concerns over Pyongyang's activities earlier this week when she spoke of concerns that it was transferring weapons and nuclear technology to fellow pariah state Myanmar.

But she said Thursday that even Myanmar had now shown "encouraging" support for enforcing the sanctions against North Korea, after her aides held a rare meeting late Wednesday with a delegation from Myanmar's junta.

Myanmar had helped turn away a North Korean ship headed for the country last month, she said, noting the "positive" direction shown by the ruling generals while warning that change would not come overnight.

Clinton, who flew out of Phuket late Thursday, had urged the ARF members to deny suspect North Korean ships access to ports and help to enforce financial sanctions on firms linked to nuclear procurement.

A statement issued by the ARF at the end of the forum said ministers "of several countries" condemned North Korea's missile and nuclear tests and urged a resumption of the six-party talks.

But it included a paragraph saying that the talks "had already come to an end" and that Pyongyang "did not recognise and totally rejected" the UN resolutions.

It said North Korea "briefed the meeting of the fact that the ongoing aggravated situation on the Korean peninsula is the product of the hostile policy of the United States against her."

The US and Myanmar delegations also discussed the treatment of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who is on trial over an incident in which a US man swam to her house.

 

[CougarKing]

And now ex-Pres. Bill Clinton meets with Kim Jong Il to try to intercede for the two detained US journalists.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090804/ap_on_re_as/as_nkorea_journalists_held/

Bill Clinton meets with NKorean leader Kim Jong Il
By JEAN H. LEE, Associated Press Writer Jean H. Lee, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 55 mins ago

SEOUL, South Korea – Former President Bill Clinton met Tuesday with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on the first day of a surprise mission to Pyongyang to negotiate the release of two Americans, holding "exhaustive" talks on a wide range of topics, state-run media said.

Clinton "courteously" conveyed a verbal message from President Barack Obama, the official Korean Central News Agency said in a report from Pyongyang. Kim expressed his thanks, and engaged Clinton in a "wide-ranging exchange of views on matters of common concern," the report said.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, however, denied Clinton went with a message from Obama. "That's not true," he told reporters.

Clinton was in communist North Korea on a mission to secure the freedom of Americans Euna Lee and Laura Ling, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's Current TV media venture who were arrested along the Chinese-North Korean border in March and sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labor for illegal entry and engaging in "hostile acts."

His landmark visit, which was not announced in advance by North Korea or the U.S., comes at a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Pyongyang, foes during the Korean War of the 1950s, over the regime's nuclear program.

North Korea in recent months has conducted a nuclear test and test-fired an array of ballistic missiles in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, with Washington leading the push to punish Pyongyang for its defiance.

It's only the second visit to Pyongyang by a former U.S. leader. Jimmy Carter traveled to North Korea for talks with Kim's father, Kim Il Sung, in 1994 in a groundbreaking meeting during a time of similar tensions.

Clinton's meeting with Kim would be the notoriously reclusive North Korean leader's first with a prominent Western figure since Kim reportedly suffered a stroke a year ago, sparking questions about the future of the nation he controls with absolute authority.

Kim, said to have a taste for fine wines and fancy gourmet food, also is believed to suffer from chronic diabetes and heart disease. The man who once sported a noticeable pot belly has appeared gaunt and gray in recent months.

Though Clinton was in North Korea on a private basis, his visit was treated by North Korea as a high-profile visit, with senior officials — including Kim Kye Gwan, the vice foreign minister who serves as the country's chief nuclear negotiator — meeting him on the tarmac.

Footage from the APTN television news agency showed the arriving Clinton exchanging warm handshakes with the officials and accepting a bouquet of flowers from a schoolgirl.

Kim later hosted a banquet for Clinton at the state guesthouse, Radio Pyongyang and the Korean Central Broadcasting Station reported.

Photos in state-run media of the visit showed Kim, with a broad smile, standing next to a solemn-looking Clinton. The two also posed with Clinton's party in front of a mural, and another picture showed the men and others seated around a conference table.

Though Clinton does not hold office, his stature and good relations with Pyongyang could yield positive results, analysts said.

"This is a very potentially rewarding trip. Not only is it likely to resolve the case of the two American journalists detained in North Korea for many months, but it could be a very significant opening and breaking this downward cycle of tension and recrimination between the U.S. and North Korea," Mike Chinoy, author of "Meltdown: The Inside Story of the North Korean Nuclear Crisis," said in Beijing.

There was no word in state media on the status of Clinton's negotiations to secure the release of Ling, 32, and Lee, 36. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton last month urged North Korea to grant the women amnesty, saying they were remorseful and that their families were anguished.

Lee, a South Korean-born U.S. citizen, is married and has a 4-year-old daughter in Los Angeles; a native Californian, Ling is the married younger sister of TV journalist Lisa Ling.

Clinton's administration had rocky but relatively good relations with Pyongyang, and both he and Gore, his vice president, had been named as possible envoys to bring back Lee and Ling. Also mentioned was New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who in the 1990s traveled twice to North Korea to secure the freedom of detained Americans.

However, the decision to send the former president was kept quiet. A senior U.S. official told reporters traveling Tuesday with Hillary Rodham Clinton that the White House would not comment on the trip to Pyongyang until the mission was complete.

"While this solely private mission to secure the release of two Americans is on the ground, we will have no comment," Gibbs, the White House spokesman, said later in a statement from Washington. "We do not want to jeopardize the success of former President Clinton's mission."

In New York, the Committee to Protect Journalists said it was encouraged by reports about Clinton's trip.

"This is welcome news and we are pleased to see movement in this case," said Bob Dietz, the group's Asia program coordinator. "The fate of these two women should not be linked to broader issues on the Korean peninsula, and to see both sides make a move toward the release of these reporters will bring some relief to them, their families and friends."

___

Associated Press writers Jae-soon Chang in Seoul, Matthew Lee at Naval Station Rota, Spain, and AP researcher Jasmine Zhao in Beijing contributed to this report.

___

On the Net:

http://www.lauraandeuna.com

 

[dustinm]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hM96sRn69bkN1XDLqb2_pkmFxqdgD99S8VAO0

Reproduced under the Fair Dealing provision of the Copyright Act

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has issued a "special pardon" to two American journalists convicted of sneaking into the country illegally, and he ordered them released during a visit by former U.S. President Bill Clinton, North Korean media reported Tuesday.

The release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee was a sign of North Korea's "humanitarian and peaceloving policy," the Korean Central News Agency reported.

Clinton, who arrived in North Korea earlier in the day on an unannounced visit, met with the reclusive and ailing Kim — his first meeting with a prominent Western figure since his reported stroke nearly a year ago.

North Korea accused Ling, 32, and Lee, 36, of sneaking into the country illegally in March and engaging in "hostile acts," and the nation's top court sentenced them in June to 12 years of hard labor.

I wonder what the DPRK propaganda machine will make of this?

 

[Rifleman62]

Just great, raise a little hell and you get a former POTUS with a somewhat "rock star" reputation come hair in place to your house to ask for a favor. You betta that the Obama White House gave tact approval to this, in spite of the"private" travel arrangements. NBC, repeated on Global calls it "a foreign policy coup for President Obama".

Give me a break. What's next?

 

[dustinm]

Just great, raise a little hell and you get a former POTUS with a somewhat "rock star" reputation come hair in place to your house to ask for a favor. You betta that the Obama White House gave tact approval to this, in spite of the"private" travel arrangements. NBC, repeated on Global calls it "a foreign policy coup for President Obama".

Give me a break. What's next?

Jimmy Carter did something similar back in '94, though that was to prevent nuclear war (if I remember.) I remember it from a documentary, but this page seems to be a good overview: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_n12_v29/ai_20089207/

 

[CougarKing]

In this photo released by Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service in Tokyo, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, right, meets with North Korean Leader Kim Jong Il, left, front, in Pyonggyang, North Korea,Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2009. At Clinton's right is former White House chief of staff John Podesta, others are unidentified. Clinton met Tuesday with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il on the first day of a surprise visit to Pyongyang, holding 'exhaustive' talks that covered a wide range of topics, state-run media said. (AP Photo/Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service) JAPAN OUT

Former U.S. president Bill Clinton (seated L) and North Korea's leader Kim Jong-il (seated R) pose for a picture in Pyongyang in this photo released by North Korean official news agency KCNA August 4, 2009. REUTERS/KCNA

U.S. journalists Laura Ling (L) and Euna Lee (2nd R) head to a chartered plane at an airport in Pyongyang August 5, 2009. REUTERS/Kyodo

A photo released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency shows former US President Bill Clinton greeting two US journalists Laura Ling (in green) and Euna Lee (red) after winning their release from the communist country as they leave Pyongyang airport to the US in a chartered plane. Meanwhile, the hardline communist state savoured its highest-level American visit in almost a decade. (AFP/KCNA via KNS)

American journalists Laura Ling (top) and Euna Lee disembark from the plane that brought them back from North Korea in Burbank, California August 5, 2009. Former President Bill Clinton met with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to release the two women after months of detention. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok (UNITED STATES POLITICS IMAGES OF THE DAY)

Freed U.S. journalist Euna Lee © is embraced by her husband Michael Saldate (top) and daughter Hana Saldate after arriving with Laura Ling and former President Bill Clinton in Burbank, California August 5, 2009. Ling, 32, and Lee, 36, American journalists freed by North Korea from months of detention, returned to U.S. soil early on Wednesday accompanied by Clinton, who secured their release in a meeting with the hermit state's leader Kim Jong-il. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok (UNITED STATES POLITICS MEDIA IMAGES OF THE DAY)

REUTERS/Danny Moloshok (UNITED STATES POLITICS MEDIA)

In this image made from AP Television News, former Vice President Al Gore , center, watches as journalists Laura Ling, left and Euna Lee speak after arriving at the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, Calif. early Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009. Former President Bill Clinton says he's 'very happy' that the pair of American journalists have been freed from imprisonment in North Korea. (AP Photo/AP Television News)

 

[dustinm]

What did those women expect when they snuck into NORTH KOREA?

My god, I'm surprised they weren't shot on sight.

 

[OldSolduer]

What did those women expect when they snuck into NORTH KOREA?

My god, I'm surprised they weren't shot on sight.

Good point. Maybe people will listen when we tell them that the Dragon and Bear aren't cute and cuddly as our left wingers make them out to be.

 

[dustinm]

Good point. Maybe people will listen when we tell them that the Dragon and Bear aren't cute and cuddly as our left wingers make them out to be.

Actually, while you're right, I think I may have been a bit harsh with my comments. While sneaking into the DPRK is indeed a stupid idea, conflicting reports abound about where they were when captured.

Their South Korean guide says they were on the Chinese side (and North Korean Border Guards had to cross over to Chinese territory to arrest them,) while the North Koreans claim they were on the North Korean side.

 

[zipperhead_cop]

Were this not a fairly straight forward thread, there would be an obvious Clinton joke to go with this picture.... ;D

 

[dustinm]

Huffington Post, via the Associated Press: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/07/laura-lings-sister-report_0_n_253750.html

LOS ANGELES -- Laura Ling's sister says the two American journalists briefly touched North Korean soil before they were captured and detained for months in that communist country.

"She said that it was maybe 30 seconds and then everything got chaotic. It's a very powerful story, and she does want to share it," Lisa Ling told CNN Thursday.

<snip>

Laura Ling told her family she was treated humanely, but meals were meager and her phone calls were monitored, Lisa Ling said.

"She had two guards in her room at all times, morning and night. And even though they couldn't speak to her, somehow they developed a strange sort of kinship, Lisa Ling said. "She had some really lovely things to say about the people who were watching over her."

The reporter passed her time in captivity reading, walking circles around her cell for exercise and planning when she would wash her hair, because water service was intermittent, Lisa Ling said.

At Laura Ling's house on a quiet residential street in the San Fernando Valley, a man who identified himself as her brother-in-law came to the door and said politely that she wasn't ready to speak about her ordeal yet.

Lisa Ling said her sister plans to write an editorial explaining what happened and how she was captured.

 

[CougarKing]

North Korean defector warns of North Korean chemical threat-July 24, 2009 video report

 

[CougarKing]

A related update:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090829/ap_on_re_us/un_un_ship_seized

UAE reports ship seizure with NKorea arms for Iran
By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer John Heilprin, Associated Press Writer
1 hr 59 mins ago

UNITED NATIONS – The United Arab Emirates has seized a cargo ship bound for Iran with a cache of banned rocket-propelled grenades and other arms from North Korea, the first such seizure since sanctions against North Korea were ramped up, diplomats and officials told The Associated Press on Friday.

The seizure earlier this month was carried out in accordance with tough new U.N. Security Council sanctions meant to derail North Korea's nuclear weapons program, but which also ban the North's sale of any conventional arms.

Diplomats identified the vessel as a Bahamas-flagged cargo vessel, the ANL Australia. The diplomats and officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

"We can confirm that the UAE detained a North Korean vessel containing illicit cargo," a Western diplomat told the AP.

Turkey's deputy U.N. ambassador, Fazli Corman, who chairs the Security Council's sanctions panel, also confirmed the incident without providing details and said council members are examining the seriousness of it.

The UAE, a hub for Iranian goods, seized the ship earlier in August. The ship is registered in the Bahamas, a common country of registry for vessels, but it wasn't immediately clear who owns it nor where the owner is based.

The Security Council's latest resolution came in the wake of North Korea's second nuclear test in May and firing of six short-range rockets.

The ship's seizure and reported violation of a U.N. arms embargo was reported by the UAE in a confidential letter two weeks ago to the council's sanctions committee for North Korea, which is comprised of diplomats from all 15 nations on the Security Council, according to diplomats and officials.

The Financial Times first reported the weapons' seizure Friday.

The Security Council imposed tough new sanctions on North Korea on June 12, strengthening an arms embargo and authorizing ship searches on the high seas to try to rein in its nuclear program after Pyongyang's second nuclear test on May 25, violating a council resolution adopted after its first nuclear blast in 2006.

The council also has ordered an asset freeze and travel ban on companies and individuals involved in the country's nuclear and weapons programs — and put five North Korean officials, four companies and a state agency on the sanctions list. Three other companies were put on the list after Pyongyang launched a rocket on April 5, a move that many saw as a cover for testing long-range missile technology.

The new sanctions resolution also calls on all nations to prevent financial institutions or individuals from providing financing for any activities related to North Korean programs to build nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and ballistic missiles.

Three sets of U.N. sanctions apply to Iran, seeking to halt its uranium enrichment. Iran denies accusations by the U.S. and Western allies that its nuclear program is for more than peaceful purposes.

The ship seizure comes at a delicate time, just as the North has been adopting a more conciliatory stance toward South Korea and the U.S., following months of defiant provocations.

Earlier this month, the North freed two American journalists and a South Korean worker after more than four months of detention and pledged to restart some joint projects.

The North also sent a delegation to Seoul to mourn the death of former South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.

 

 

[PMedMoe]

Article Link

By Jack Kim, Reuters September 26, 2009

SEOUL — Ninety-seven South Koreans crossed a heavily armed border on Saturday to meet family members in the communist North in fleeting reunions arranged by the rivals split by war and ideology more than half a century ago.

The two Koreas began reunions in 2000 for the hundreds of thousands of divided families, but the events have been on hold for about two years due to political tension, denying many Koreans their dying wish to see relatives they left behind.

Most of the hundreds of thousands of South Koreans looking for lost family members in the North are 70 or older, meaning time is running out.

The reunion at the North Korean resort of Mount Kumgang was an outpouring of sorrow, joy and relief as family members lost for more than half a century were reunited.

"Don't you have anything to say to me?" said Chung Dae-chun, who at 95 is the oldest person to be taking part in the three-day event, as he was reunited with his son, who is hearing impaired and appeared older than his trim and alert father.

Destitute North Korea, stung by U.N. sanctions triggered by nuclear and missile tests, has in recent months reached out to the South, once a major aid donor, proposing renewed business ties and resuming the emotionally charged reunions.

The 97 South Koreans are meeting 240 North Korean sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters in Mount Kumgang just miles from the border on the peninsula's east coast.

Ninety-nine North Koreans who sought relatives in the South will follow in another three days of reunions meeting 449 who will travel from the South.

More on link

 

[PMedMoe]

Further to my post above:

NKorean meets her 100-year-old mother
Article link

SEOUL, South Korea - A North Korean woman wept as she embraced her 100-year-old South Korean mother for the first time since 1951 on Tuesday, during a fresh round of reunions of divided families - the latest sign of warming ties between the Koreas.

Amid the tears of joy, however, there was sadness: A 75-year-old South Korean who had been trying for nearly a decade to reunite with his family in North Korea threw himself in front of a train near Seoul because he was not among the hundreds selected for the reunions.

The six days of highly emotional reunions - the first in nearly two years - began Saturday at North Korea's Diamond Mountain. The first group of more than 120 South Koreans returned to Seoul on Monday after three days, and a second group of about 430 South Koreans went to the North on Tuesday.

South Korea's YTN television showed footage of 75-year-old Ri Hae Kyong, a North Korean, hugging her centenarian South Korean mother, Kim Yu-jung. The daughter, just 16 when she disappeared during the 1950-53 Korean War, used a handkerchief to wipe away her mother's tears.

"It's been 60 years, and I've been missing you even in my dreams," Ri told her mother and two sisters, the Yonhap news agency reported. "You are now 100 years old, and I thought I would never see you again."

North Korea agreed last month to allow the meetings and other reconciliation ties with South Korea as part of efforts to reach out to its wartime rival following more than a year of tensions, largely over the North's nuclear program. About 900 Koreans will be reunited during the two sessions, according to the organizer, South Korea's Red Cross.

More on link

 

[Soldier1stTradesman2nd]

Relations would really warm up if they held these reunions on the south side of the DMZ. I fathom the return train would be a few passengers short.

 

[CougarKing]

For now he's playing nice, possibly due to Beijing's prodding. But the cycle from talks to missile launches back to talks will start again eventually.  :

Agence France-Presse - 10/5/2009 9:53 PM GMT
NKorea's Kim willing to return to nuclear talks: state media
North Korea is willing to return to six-party nuclear disarmament talks if separate talks planned with the United States make progress, the communist state's official media said.

It said leader Kim Jong-Il gave the commitment at a meeting late Monday in Pyongyang with visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.

"The hostile relations between the DPRK (North Korea) and the United States should be converted into peaceful ties through the bilateral talks without fail," the Korean Central News Agency quoted Kim as saying.

"We expressed our readiness to hold multilateral talks, depending on the outcome of the DPRK-US talks. The six-party talks are also included in the multilateral talks."

Kim said the North's efforts to denuclearise the Korean peninsula remain unchanged.

China's official Xinhua news agency carried a similar report, saying the two leaders reached "vital consensus" on the issue.

The North quit the six-nation forum in April after the United Nations condemned its long-range rocket launch. It vowed to restart its programme to make atomic bombs.

In May the North staged its second nuclear test, incurring tougher UN sanctions supported even by its close ally China. The United States has been leading a drive to enforce the measures.

The North has been pressing for bilateral talks with the United States, which says such talks are possible only if the goal is to restart the six-party forum.

Washington has been awaiting the outcome of Wen's visit before deciding whether to accept a reported invitation to send Stephen Bosworth, special representative for North Korea policy, to Pyongyang.

Wen's high-profile three-day visit ending later Tuesday was officially described as a goodwill trip to attend celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of Korea diplomatic relations.

But efforts to bring the North back to the six-nation talks were high on the agenda.

The forum which was formed in 2003 also groups South Korea, the United States, Russia and Japan. It reached a deal in 2007 under which the North shut down its plutonium-producing plant at Yongbyon.

In Wen's talks Sunday with Premier Kim Yong-Il and other senior officials, the North had expressed willingness to achieve denuclearisation through "bilateral and multilateral dialogues."

The North, however, blamed the United States for the nuclear standoff and linked denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula to the pace of global atomic disarmament efforts.

Pyongyang has lately been stressing its claim that it needs atomic weapons as a shield against US hostility. It also seeks formal recognition as a nuclear-armed state, something Washington and Seoul have adamantly rejected.

China is isolated North Korea's biggest trade partner and energy supplier.

In a sign of the importance which Pyongyang places on the relationship, Kim Jong-Il personally hosted an elaborate red-carpet airport welcome for Wen on Sunday and greeted him with a hug.

On Monday the two sides had hailed their friendship without mentioning nuclear disputes.

"History has proven that developing China-North Korea relations is in line with the fundamental interests and common aspirations of the two peoples and conducive to safeguarding regional peace and stability," said a Chinese foreign ministry statement, quoting Chinese President Hu Jintao and Wen.

"We are willing to work together with North Korea to... constantly push forward friendly and cooperative relations."

In the same statement Kim was quoted as calling the bilateral relationship "a common treasure."

Wen Monday toured a cemetery for Chinese soldiers who died fighting for the North in the 1950-1953 war. Among those buried there is Mao Anying, son of the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong.