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Top official to visit Pyongyang
By Hu Xiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-09-08 01:41
Li Changchun, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of
the Communist Party of China Central Committee will visit the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) from Friday to Monday, the second high-level
visit between the two nations since DPRK leader Kim Jong-il's Beijing tour in
April.
The news was revealed by Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan at
Tuesday's regular news briefing.
"During the visit, the two sides will not only aim to promoting bilateral
ties, but will discuss some major regional and international issues, including
the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula," said Kong.
The spokesman said China hoped all six parties taking part in talks on the
nuclear standoff in the Korean Peninsula keep calm, remain flexible and continue
negotiations despite the inevitable difficulties in holding the fourth round of
the six-party negotiations this month as scheduled.
"There are some difficulties, but these are not difficulties which have just
arisen at this moment," said Kong, adding that the goal of a nuclear-free Korean
peninsula could be reached "step by step."
"I think this is not only the aspiration of people in the region but also of
the international community ," he said.
Kong made the remarks amid flurries of diplomatic activity to start a new
round of six-party talks involving China, DPRK, the United States, the Republic
of Korea (ROK), Russia and Japan.
Japan's foreign ministry announced on Tuesday that senior officials from
Japan, the ROK and the United States would meet in Tokyo late this week.
The six countries agreed at the end of the third round of the six-party
nuclear talks, held in Beijing in June, to hold the fourth round of the talks
before the end of September.
In a related development, Kong said the ROK side has informed China about the
investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about its uranium
issue.
"We hope the ROK side can co-operate with the IAEA to resolve the case," Kong
said, adding that he hoped the issue would not affect the six-party talks.
An IAEA inspection team arrived in the ROK on August 29 to investigate the
claim that several ROK scientists conducted uranium separation experiments in
early 2000.
The IAEA will conduct an analysis of the enriched uranium they brought from
the ROK to discover its elements and enrichment level. Then they will report to
the IAEA board of directors whether their analysis is in accordance with the ROK
government's report, local media reported.
Earlier, ROK government senior officials stressed the experiment was an
academic activity that had nothing to do with nuclear weapons and that the
enriched uranium was far below weapons-grade.
In response to remarks made by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over the
weekend on the future development of relations with China at his first media
conference since he took the position in May, Kong said China attaches great
importance to relations with India and would like to work with India to greatly
strengthen co-operation in all areas and bring their bilateral constructive and
co-operative partnership to a new level.
On the border issue left by history, the two countries should proceed from
the friendship between the two countries and properly handle it, following the
principles of consultations on an equal footing, mutual understanding and
accommodation and mutual adjustment.
Singh said at the conference that he hoped the border dispute between the two
countries will be resolved soon.
"The senior representatives of the two countries are discussing the border
issue and it is my hope we can make progress in our resolution (of the issue),"
Singh said.
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