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South Korea hopes Kim's China visit spurs arms talks
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-01-19 08:41
South Korea's foreign minister voiced hope on Wednesday that North Korean
leader Kim Jong-il's visit to China would spur nuclear disarmament talks and had
taught him something about economic reforms.
Ban Ki-moon, one of several candidates to succeed U.N. Secretary-General Kofi
Annan, was commenting on Kim's just-ended China visit, which included a visit to
a crop research institute.
"We hope the North Korean leader and senior officials of North Korea (have)
learned good lessons from the reform and good economic development process of
China," Ban told reporters.
Chinese President Hu Jintao (R) shakes hands
with North Korea's Kim Jong Il at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing,
January 17, 2006. [Reuters] | North Korea has tinkered with market-style economic reforms and aid workers
say some of the reforms have been at least partially rolled back. Agriculture is
particularly inefficient.
Kim, who went to China from January 10 to 18 at the invitation of President
Hu Jintao, said he would try to remove obstacles blocking six-party talks on the
country's nuclear arms program, North Korea's KCNA news agency said on
Wednesday.
Ban, after a meeting with Annan, said he was encouraged by the report that
Kim had told Chinese leaders he would help restart the nuclear talks.
"We hope at this time that the six-party talks be resumed as soon as
possible," Ban said.
The two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and China last met in
November to discuss North Korea's agreement in principle to dismantle its
nuclear arms in exchange for aid and security guarantees.
The talks are stalled over Pyongyang's demand that the United States ease its
financial pressures against the North. Washington late last year banned American
firms from doing business with a Chinese bank in Macao on suspicions it helped
North Korea launder counterfeit money.
It also blacklisted eight North Korean companies suspected of aiding the
north's nuclear weapons program.
Ban refused to discuss his candidacy for the top U.N. job when Annan's term
ends at the end of this year, saying nothing was official yet. But he is known
to have met ambassadors from Security Council powers who are crucial in making
the decision.
An informal rotation tradition makes it an Asian's turn to become
secretary-general. But both the United States and Britain have said candidates
should not be limited to Asia.
"I understand that it is a general consensus among the member states of the
United Nations that it is Asia's turn," Ban said.
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