North Korea's No. 2 leader Kim Yong-nam met with a visiting Chinese delegation, which includes Beijing's top envoy to international negotiations over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, the North's state-run media reported Friday.
"Kim Yong-nam, president of the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly...on Thursday met with the Chinese friendship delegation led by Hui Liangyu," vice prime minister of China's State Council, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
The DPRK stands for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The dispatch from Pyongyang failed to clarify whether Beijing's top nuclear negotiator, Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, was also present at Thursday's meeting, but the country's Korean Central Broadcasting Station later confirmed the diplomat's presence.
Wu has been on a six-day trip to the reclusive state along with the friendship delegation since Monday to mark the 45th anniversary of the signing of a treaty of friendship between his country and North Korea.
His visit, however, has been drawing keen attention as it came amid efforts by Washington and Tokyo to urge the United Nations Security Council to impose sanctions on the communist state for its launch of seven missiles into waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan last week.
Wu's visit to Pyongyang prompted hope for a breakthrough in the stalled nuclear negotiations, but his meeting with the North's top nuclear negotiator Kim Kye-gwan on Thursday ended in failure, according to his ministry.
China's head delegate to the joint celebrations of the China-North Korea friendship anniversary was quoted as saying "the Chinese people will as ever render positive support to the Korean people in their efforts for socialist construction."
A vote by the U.N. Security Council on a resolution proposed by Tokyo, calling for U.N. sanctions against the communist North for its missile tests, has been postponed twice amid calls from China, a veto-wielding member of the Council and a close ally of the North, that its diplomacy be given more time.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill on Thursday said Beijing has been "baffled" by Pyongyang's actions.
"The Chinese are as baffled as we are. China has done so much for that country (North Korea) and that country seems intent on taking all of China's generosity and then giving nothing back," the top U.S. nuclear negotiator told reporters shortly before leaving the Chinese capital for his country.
Pyongyang has been staying away from the nuclear disarmament talks, which also involve the United States, Japan, China, Russia and South Korea, since November.
Seoul, July 14 (Yonhap News)
N. Korea's no. 2 man meets Chinese delegates, but no word on missile crisis |
