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Chinese Envoy Holds Talks With Key NK Official

Posted February. 08, 2010 09:08,   

한국어

A key member of the Chinese Communist Party yesterday held talks with a leading official from North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party.

North Korean TV media said Wang Jiarui, director of the international liaison department of the central committee of the Chinese Communist Party, spoke to North Korean counterpart Kim Yong Il Saturday.

“The international department of the Workers’ Party’s central committee held a banquet Saturday for a Chinese delegation visiting Pyongyang. Key figures of the department including Kim Yong Il and assistant head Kim Song Nam attended the banquet,” North Korea’s Chosun Central TV said.

The station reported on the Chinese delegation’s arrival by air in Pyongyang Saturday.

Wang is expected to stay in Pyongyang until tomorrow. Following precedent, he is expected to hold talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and deliver a letter personally written by Chinese President Hu Jintao.

Wang has spoken to Kim Jong Il in his four previous visits to North Korea -- January 2004, February 2005, January 2008 and January last year. Wang was also the first foreigner to see the North Korean leader after rumors over his ill health broke out in August 2008, saying he was in good health.

One diplomatic source said, “If Wang talks to Kim Jong Il, they’re likely to discuss North Korea’s return to the six-party talks as demanded by the international community in one way or another.”

Kim was reported to have watched the opera “Eugene Onegin” at Kim Won Kyun Music College in Pyongyang. Accompanying him were Vice Foreign Minister Kang Sok Ju, who handles North Korea’s nuclear program and ties with the U.S., and Kim Yang Gon, councilor of the National Defense Commission and unification front director of the Workers` Party.



kyle@donga.com