April 21, 2004
By Audra Ang

BEIJING (AP) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il said during a visit to Beijing that he wants to end the standoff over the North's nuclear program though dialogue and is committed to a "nuclear weapon-free goal," China announced Wednesday.

Kim and Chinese leaders agreed to "jointly pushing forward" six-nation talks on the North's nuclear program, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The report, issued after the secretive Kim left the Chinese capital on Wednesday, was China's first public confirmation of his three-day visit.

Kim's visit came just days after Vice President Dick Cheney traveled to Beijing last week and urged Chinese leaders to press the North to reach a settlement.

During a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Kim said the North "sticks to the final nuclear-weapon-free goal and its basic position on seeking a peaceful solution through dialogue has not changed," Xinhua said. It said the two leaders "agreed to continue ... jointly pushing forward the six-party talks process."

Kim also met former President Jiang Zemin, who now heads the commission that runs China's military; Premier Wen Jiabao, Vice President Zeng Qinghong and Wu Bangguo, the No. 2 leader of China's Communist Party.

South Korean media earlier reported that Chinese leaders had urged Kim to ease his hardline stance against the United States. The Xinhua account of the meetings didn't mention that.

Washington insists on a "complete, verifiable and irreversible dismantling" of all the communist North's nuclear facilities. Pyongyang says it needs a "nuclear deterrent" against a possible U.S. attack and would give up its nuclear program only in return for U.S. security guarantees and economic aid.

Chinese media had been silent about Kim's trip although it was widely reported in South Korean media. Following his departure, Chinese state television showed him hugging each of the leaders and kissing some of them on the cheek. In his meeting with Hu, Kim was dressed in a grey Mao-style tunic, while Hu wore a grey Western-style suit and red tie.

The last round of six-party talks - involving United States, China, the two Koreas, Japan and Russia - ended in February in Beijing without no settlement but a pledge to meet again.

China says the parties hope to do so by July, but have been blocked by unspecified differences, the Chinese government has said.

On Wednesday, Xinhua said the North "will continue to take a patient and flexible manner and actively participate in the six-party talks process, and make its own contributions to the progress of the talks."

In his meeting with Jiang, "Kim was believed to have expressed a strong doubt that North Korea would ever get security guarantees from the United States even if it gives up its nuclear programs," the South Korean newspaper Munhwa Ilbo reported, citing unidentified sources in Beijing.

"Jiang was believed to have told Kim that the possibility of the United States invading North Korea was very slim, thus indirectly giving him strong advice for North Korea to change its hard-line stance against the United States," it reported.

During his 15-hour train ride home, Kim was expected to visit the major industrial centers of Shenyang or Dalian in China's northeast to study government efforts to boost the economy with outside investment.

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