NKorea Envoy Gives Letter to China's Xi05/24 07:17

   BEIJING (AP) -- A top North Korean envoy delivered a letter from leader Kim 
Jong Un to Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday and told him Pyongyang would 
take steps to rejoin stalled six-nation nuclear disarmament talks, in an 
apparent victory for Beijing's efforts to coax its unruly ally into lowering 
tensions.

   North Korean Vice Marshal Choe Ryong Hae's visit was part of efforts to mend 
fences after Pyongyang angered Beijing with recent snubs and moves to develop 
its nuclear program.

   The official China News Service said Choe delivered the handwritten letter 
from Kim to Xi at an afternoon meeting at the Great Hall of the People in 
central Beijing. It gave no details about the letter's contents.

   North Korea is willing to work with all sides to "appropriately resolve the 
relevant questions through the six-party talks and other forms," Choe was 
quoted as saying by Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.

   He said Pyongyang was "willing to take active measures in this regard."

   Choe offered no details on how North Korea planned to resume talks. North 
Korea has reneged on commitments made in previous rounds of the six-party 
talks, stalemated since 2009 over disagreements on how to verify steps the 
North was taking to end its nuclear programs.

   China has been under intense pressure from Washington to push North Korea 
into lowering tensions and resuming dialogue.

   Xi reaffirmed longstanding ties between the communist neighbors, and urged 
all sides to "keep cool and exercise restraint."

   The six-party talks should aim to end North Korea's nuclear programs and 
"maintain lasting peace and stability on the peninsula and in northeast Asia," 
Xi was quoted as saying.

   The meeting followed an unusual half-year gap in high-level contacts during 
which Pyongyang angered Beijing by conducting rocket launches, a nuclear test 
and other saber-rattling --- spiking tensions with South Korea and the U.S.

   Beijing considered the moves an affront to its interests in regional 
stability and showed its displeasure by joining with the U.S. to back U.N. 
sanctions and cut off dealings with North Korea's Foreign Trade Bank.

   North Korea also frustrated Beijing by refusing to agree to high-level 
meetings and incensed the Chinese public this month with the detention of a 
Chinese fishing crew.

   "The relationship is rocky, so they will try to mend the relationship," Cui 
Yingjiu, a retired professor of Korean at Peking University, said of North 
Korea. "Second, they also want to improve relations with the U.S. and need 
China to be their intermediary."

   North Korea has figured prominently in recent visits by Secretary of State 
John Kerry and other U.S. officials, and Choe's three-day visit to Beijing came 
ahead of a meeting in California early next month between Xi and President 
Barack Obama, as well as a trip to Beijing by South Korean President Park 
Geun-hye in late June.

   China is North Korea's last significant diplomatic ally and main source of 
trade and economic assistance. Ties between their insular communist governments 
have always been wrapped in secrecy and it is not clear whether the contents of 
Kim's letter to Xi will ever be revealed.

   China is believed to have agreed to Choe's visit only after Pyongyang 
committed to returning to the process of negotiation, and required him to state 
that publicly twice before his meeting with Xi.

   Earlier Friday, a top Chinese general told Choe that Beijing wanted a 
peaceful, denuclearized Korean Peninsula, in a reiteration of China's 
established position that could also be seen as a rebuke to the North.

   The official state Xinhua News Agency quoted Fan Changlong as telling Choe 
that tensions surrounding the nuclear issue have "intensified strategic 
conflicts among involved parties and jeopardized the peace and stability of the 
peninsula."

   Xinhua quoted Choe as telling Fan that there is "no guarantee of peace" but 
his country was "willing to work with all sides to search for a method of 
solving the problems through dialogue," Choe said.

   On Thursday, Choe told the ruling party's fifth-ranked official that North 
Korea "is willing to accept the suggestion of the Chinese side and launch 
dialogue with all relevant parties."

   John Delury, a professor at Yonsei University in Seoul who specializes in 
China and North Korea, said the fact that Kim's envoy "is being quoted as 
saying that North Korea is open to China's suggestions already is a strong 
signal of kiss and make up."

   "This trip is moving things back to a regular strategic dialogue," he said.


(KA)