China sends letter to North Korea

By MARTIN NESIRKY in Seoul

Chinese President Hu Jintao has sent a letter to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, and South Korea says it hopes the message will help to persuade Pyongyang to agree to multilateral talks on its nuclear aims.

Communist North Korea and the United States seem at first glance to be drifting further apart rather than edging toward talks, but diplomats said China's decision to intervene with a letter from Hu to Kim was significant.

"As much as anyone can influence North Korea, the Chinese can," said one senior diplomat in Seoul. "China is playing a crucial role in trying to get them to the table."

Whether Beijing can succeed soon is another matter.

The North's official KCNA news agency said Chinese Vice-Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo had met Kim yesterday with the letter. China's Xinhua news agency said the two men discussed "issues of mutual concern".

Lee Jihyun, the foreign media spokeswoman for South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun, said China's efforts were very important. Roh visited China last week and urged Hu to help coax the North back into talks. Washington has also praised Beijing's role.

"We are not aware of the contents of the letter that has been delivered, but we hope that it provides a chance for North Korea to participate in multilateral talks," she said.

China is North Korea's main ally and its economic aid, with international handouts, has helped to keep the North afloat.

Diplomats said Kim was likely to take Hu's letter seriously, although his judgment could be coloured by China's jailing on Monday of Dutch national Yang Bin, an ethnic Chinese tycoon he initially chose last year to run a free-trade zone. Yang received an 18-year sentence.

Pyongyang has been taking an increasingly strident line against the United States, including a complaint to the UN Security Council about US "hostile acts" towards the North.

Washington wants the council to condemn Pyongyang for reviving its nuclear programme and a US official is touring Asia to find ways to fight North Korean smuggling.

Diplomats say the North has in the past raised the rhetorical volume before making concessions.

They said Dai was sent to talk about the crisis, which began last October when the United States said Pyongyang had said it had a secret atomic programme.

North Korea says it wants to speak directly to the United States first but Washington says it prefers multilateral discussions including China, South Korea, Japan and possibly Russia.

China hosted a first, inconclusive round of talks with US and North Korean officials in April in Beijing.

Since the crisis began, North Korea has quit the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and told the United States it has atomic weapons and aims to make more.

The United States and its allies have not been able to verify that, although they have long said Pyongyang could already have one or two bombs.

- REUTERS