North Korea, China discuss resumption of 6-party talks

The chief nuclear envoys from China and North Korea discussed ways to resume the long-stalled six-party talks on the North's nuclear weapons programs, China's foreign ministry said Monday. Amid indications Beijing is accelerating its efforts to revive the six-party talks, the Chinese nuclear envoy, Wu Dawei, made a five-day visit to North Korea last week and held talks with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye-gwan. "The two sides exchanged views on the current situation on the Korean Peninsula as well as the six-party talks," China's foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters in a press briefing. "Let me be more specific, the two sides exchanged views on the resumption of the six-party talks," Hong said. The forum, which involves the two Koreas, China, the U.S., Japan and Russia, has been stalled since late 2008. Hong, however, did not go into details of last week's talks between Kim and Wu. After stoking tensions early this year by conducting its third nuclear test, North Korea has recently made overtures toward South Korea and the U.S. South Korea and the U.S. have called on North Korea to demonstrate its seriousness about denuclearization through concrete actions before any resumption of the six-party nuclear talks. North Korea has expressed its willingness to rejoin the six-party talks but has shown no signs of accepting such conditions set by Seoul and Washington. Instead, North Korea has insisted on being recognized as a nuclear power.