Two countries to discuss strategy following death of DPRK leader

BEIJING - Beijing and Seoul are coordinating strategies on the Korean Peninsula following the death of the top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), as high-level talks are planned for next week.

China and the Republic of Korea (ROK) have been in discussions about holding talks in Seoul next week to assess and exchange views on the situation on the Korean Peninsula, the ROK's Yonhap News Agency quoted a senior Seoul official as saying on Friday.

The talks will be led by Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun and ROK counterpart Park Suk-hwan possibly on Tuesday, Yonhap reported.

Lim Sung-nam, Seoul's chief nuclear envoy to the stalled Six-Party Talks, wrapped up a two-day visit to Beijing on Friday for talks on the aftermath of Kim's death.

Lim met with his Chinese counterpart Wu Dawei on Thursday afternoon.

The two exchanged views on the Six-Party Talks and the situation on the Korean Peninsula, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said at a news conference on Friday.

China has been in close contact with all relevant countries recently, and Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi has spoken to all relevant parties and paid condolences to the DPRK embassy in Beijing, he added.

Yang talked to his ROK counterpart Kim Sung-hwan a day after Kim's death was announced, agreeing on the importance of ensuring peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and vowing to cooperate and stay in close communication.

Neither side has released further details.

In his meeting with Wu, Lim was expected to discuss the coordination of the two countries on joint strategies to resume the stalled nuclear talks after Kim's death, according to Yonhap.

The Six-Party Talks, last held in 2008, involve the DPRK, the ROK, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, and were designed to end the DPRK's nuclear weapon program.

Kim announced in 2009 that the DPRK was quitting the talks, and negotiations were suspended after the DPRK's second underground nuclear test.

Before departing for China, Lim said the two countries had already exchanged views on the importance of the Six-Party Talks, and China, as the host of the talks, "will play an important role as the situation develops in the future", Yonhap reported.

Kim's death amid renewed efforts to reopen the negotiations has made the future of the talks even more uncertain.

The DPRK will focus on domestic affairs in a short run and will not likely change its stance on the reopening of nuclear negotiations without prerequisite conditions, said Liu Jiangyong, vice-dean of the Institute of Modern International Relations at Tsinghua University.

Pyongyang and Washington held two rounds of rare denuclearization talks days before Kim's death, with a third round expected in the near future following separate talks on food aid.

ROK President Lee Myung-bak is also scheduled to visit China early next year.