A Japanese news agency reported yesterday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il believes that his government could collapse if the US keeps imposing economic sanctions against his country.
Citing an unidentified diplomatic source in New York close to the international talks over North Korea's nuclear program, Kyodo News reported that Kim made the remarks to Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) during a secretive weeklong trip to China last month.
Kim voiced his concerns when Hu asked him to drop the demand that Washington lift financial sanctions as a precondition for Pyongyang to return to the talks, Kyodo said. Hu is likely to bring up the matter during an upcoming visit to the US, it added.
Officials from Japan's Foreign Ministry were unavailable for comment on the report yesterday.
The talks on eliminating the North's nuclear program have been stalled since November because of Pyongyang's refusal to attend over the sanctions, imposed for alleged illicit activities.
The US has rebuffed the demand, saying the sanctions are a law-enforcement matter unrelated to the nuclear talks, which include the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the US.
Pyongyang claims the sanctions are a manifestation of what it terms the US' "hostile policy," aimed at overthrowing the regime.
North Korea plans to send a delegation led by Li Gun, director general of the Foreign Ministry's US Affairs Bureau, to the US to possibly discuss the matter as early as later this month, Kyodo said.
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