China's second-ranking politician Wu Bangguo (
In an indication of the importance it assigned to the event, North Korea rolled out the red carpet and sent Kim Yong-nam, its own No. 2, to Pyongyang International Airport to greet Wu.
Wu, the head of China's legislature, said he hoped the visit could "make contributions to the maintenance of peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the region as well," according to China's official Xinhua news agency.
The three-day trip, the highest-level Chinese mission to the country for two years, coincided with continued efforts in capitals on both sides of the Pacific to persuade the North to return to the negotiating table.
Only hours before Wu's plane touched down, China's Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan (曹剛川) met in Washington with US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
The hour-long encounter, Cao's first meeting with Rumsfeld in his capacity as defense minister, was spent partly on discussions about North Korea, US officials said.
An aide to South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun said yesterday there were signs progress could be made in finding a resolution to the nuclear stand-off.
"We can cautiously say that we are at the stage of finding a clue [to ending the crisis]," said Ra Jong-yil, Roh's national security adviser.
A first round of talks in Beijing in August brought together the US, China, Japan, Russia and the two Koreas but ended without agreement.
Optimism has grown in recent days that a new round of six-country talks could take place in the Chinese capital before the end of the year.
This has been fueled mainly by a surprise statement by North Korea Saturday saying it was ready to consider an offer by US President George W. Bush to provide a written security guarantee in return for an end to its nuclear weapons program.
The move was a tactical ploy designed to take advantage of power shifts within the Bush administration, observers said.
The hawks of the administration are seriously weakened by problems in Iraq, making it opportune for North Korea to come across as moderating its policies, they said.
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