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.
quote:
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.
SEOUL (Reuters) - The leaders of South Korea and Japan called on Friday for a new approach to force North Korea to give up atomic arms as Pyongyang planned to send an envoy to the United States, a trip which could revive dormant nuclear talks.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and new Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama showed a united front at a summit in Seoul in confronting one of the most pressing security risks in the region. They said they wanted to avoid previous mistakes in the sporadic, six-country nuclear negotiations.
"Unless there is a precise change in North Korea's actions, we should not provide economic cooperation. North Korea's will to change must be seen." Hatoyama told a joint news conference.
Lee is looking to offer North Korea what he called "a grand bargain" of incentives in return for lasting steps to end its nuclear arms program.
"The two countries should strictly enforce U.N. Security Council resolutions while leaving the door open for dialogue and make all diplomatic efforts so that the North will return to the six-party talks," Lee added.
Destitute North Korea was hit with U.N. sanctions after a nuclear test in May aimed at cutting into its arms trade, which provides a vital source of cash for its depleted coffers.
Lee and Hatoyama travel to Beijing for a summit with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Saturday to discuss regional economic and security issues.
New leader Hatoyama is trying to reassure his neighbors he will work to overcome their contentious history in a bid to build trust with Japan's major trade partners.
"We should always have the courage to look at history correctly and positively," he said.
NORTH KOREAN ENVOY
North Korea said about six months ago it was quitting the talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, and may be seeking a change of the format for the discussions, which offer it aid and better global standing in return for ending its decades-long pursuit of nuclear arms. "We don't know when or what format, but I think North Korea has shown it does want to restart negotiations, even if its just to ease tensions," said Cai Jian, an expert on North Korea at Fudan University in Shanghai.
China is the North's biggest benefactor and analysts have said it does not want to see any punishments meted out on its neighbor that destabilize Pyongyang's leaders and bring chaos to its border.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il said this week his country was willing to return to six-way nuclear disarmament discussions, but wanted to talk to the United States first -- after the communist state declared the six-party talks dead earlier in the year.
North Korea plans to send senior negotiator Ri Gun to the United States and hopes Washington will reciprocate by sending envoys to Pyongyang, South Korean broadcaster YTN television quoted a diplomatic source as saying.
The United States and North Korea have no diplomatic relations so visits by the North's officials are rare. (Writing by Jon Herskovitz; Additional reporting by Jack Kim in Seoul and Chris Buckley in Beijing; Editing by Jonathan Thatcher and Jerry Norton)
