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China, North Korea meet ahead of six-nation talks

China's point man on North Korea held talks with officials from the South yesterday ahead of crucial six-nation talks aimed at resolving the standoff over the communist state's nuclear weapons program.

Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi and South Korea's top Foreign Ministry officials called for joint efforts to secure concrete results at the second round of meetings, which begin Feb. 25.

Meanwhile, North Korea said yesterday it urged Japan to support its offer to freeze all its nuclear activities in return for economic concessions from the US.

"We hope that substantive results could be made through joint efforts at the second round of talks," Wang said, heading into discussions with Deputy Foreign Minister Lee Soo-hyuck in Seoul.

Wang and Lee represented their nations in a first round of talks among the US, the two Koreas, China, Russia and Japan in August, which ended without much progress.

"Whatever difficulties surface, we must firmly push ahead with the process of peace talks," said Wang, who also discussed the upcoming talks with Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon and Vice Foreign Minister Choi Young-jin.

They had "in-depth" discussions on a range of issues, including the North's nuclear freeze proposal, said Cho Tae-yong, chief of Seoul's newly established task force for the nuclear dispute.

North Korea has offered to freeze all its nuclear activities as a first step in resolving the nuclear dispute, only if Washington provides free oil shipments, lifts economic sanctions and removes the Communist nation from its list of countries that sponsor terrorism.

Washington has demanded that North Korea first start dismantling its nuclear programs.

Before coming to Seoul, Wang discussed the nuclear dispute with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan.

North Korea said it had won Chinese support for its freeze proposal during Kim's visit to Beijing.
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