20000321

China, N Korea pledge to build old ties

BEIJING: Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji and North Korean Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun met on Monday for brief talks that stressed longstanding ties between the Communist neighbours, Chinese state media reported.

Paek, on the first leg of a 20-day tour of China and Southeast Asia amid a flurry of North Korean diplomatic activity, carried "cordial regards" to Zhu and President Jiang Zemin from North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, Xinhua news agency said.

Xinhua said both sides pledged to build on ties built by the "older generation of leaders".

Paek was quoted as telling Zhu: "It is the consistent position of our party and government to further develop Korea-Chinese friendship established and nurtured personally by the older-generation leaders of the two countries."

China fought alongside North Korea in the 1950-53 Korean War and has shipped large mounts of food aid to its Stalinist neighbour to help it cope with a famine believed to have killed hundreds of thousands of people since 1995.

Xinhua gave no further details on the third day of Paek's five-day visit, which takes place amid speculation the secretive Kim Jong-il could travel to China this year on his first foreign trip as North Korean leader.

Kim made a rare visit to the Chinese embassy in Pyongyang on March 5 in what analysts said could be a step toward a historic trip to Beijing.

If Kim made a long-awaited trip to China, it would be his first foray abroad since taking over from his late father, President Kim Il-sung, who died in 1994.

North Korea watchers believe China, with which Pyongyang has managed to maintain fairly good ties, would be his first foreign destination if he decided to make an overseas visit.

In June 1983, Kim made a low-key 12-day visit to China, believed to be the last time he went abroad.

The 58-year-old KIm remains an enigma to the outside world and rarely receives foreign visitors.

North Korea is thought to want to boost relations with China, one of its few remaining allies, while at the same time holding talks on diplomatic ties with Japan, the United States, and other Western countries.

North Korea has recently normalised relations with Italy and sent feelers to Canada and Australia.

The relationship between China and North Korea -- which Chairman Mao Zedong once described as "as close as lips and teeth" -- suffered after China introduced market-oriented reforms and established diplomatic relations with Pyongyang's rival, South Korea, in 1992.-Reuters