Kim agrees to nuke dialogue

BEIJING — North Korea’s leader told Chinese officials he is committed to ending a nuclear dispute through dialogue, China said yesterday, in what observers saw as a sign of progress in resolving the standoff with the United States and its allies.

After top-level meetings in Beijing, North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and China agreed to continue six-nation talks on defusing the crisis, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The report, issued after the secretive Mr. Kim left the Chinese capital earlier in the day, was China’s first public confirmation of his three-day visit.

Mr. Kim’s trip followed Vice President Dick Cheney’s visit to Beijing last week. During that visit, Mr. Cheney urged Chinese leaders to press North Korea to reach a settlement.

Washington insists on a “complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantling” of North Korea’s nuclear facilities. North Korea says it would only give up its program in exchange for aid for its decrepit economy and a written promise from the United States that it won’t attack.

Mr. Kim’s trip to longtime ally China this week was his first since the nuclear dispute flared in October 2002, when U.S. officials said North Korea admitted running a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of international agreements.

Meeting with President Hu Jintao, Mr. Kim said North Korea “sticks to the final nuclear-weapon-free goal and its basic position on seeking a peaceful solution through dialogue has not changed,” Xinhua reported.

The last round of six-nation talks — involving China, the two Koreas, the United States, Japan and Russia — ended in February in Beijing without a settlement.

Mr. Kim also met former President Jiang Zemin, who remains head of the powerful commission that runs China’s military. In addition, he met Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, Vice President Zeng Qinghong and Wu Bangguo, the No. 2 leader of China’s Communist Party.

Chinese media had been silent about Mr. Kim’s trip, though it was widely reported in the South Korean media. Following his departure, Chinese state television showed footage of him hugging each of the leaders. He was shown dressed either in a Mao-style buttoned tunic or in his favored tan zip-up jacket with matching pants — while the Chinese leaders wore Western-style suits and ties.

North Korea’s worsening economy makes it more likely Mr. Kim will pay heed to China’s calls for him to soften his position, observers said.

“He’s losing Chinese political and economic support more and more every day,” said Park Joon-young, a political science professor at Ewha Women’s University in Seoul. “Everybody is expecting something good out of this [meeting], because Kim Jong-il made a new move and came out of his den.”

In the end, it is North Korea that suffers the most if the standoff continues, analysts said.