Kim Jong Il demands US ties for nuclear talks

In a rare meeting on Monday with Wen Jiabao, the Chinese Prime Minister, Mr Kim expressed "our readiness to hold multilateral talks, depending on the outcome of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea [DPRK]-US talks”, according to a report today by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). He said: "The hostile relations between the DPRK and the United States should be converted into peaceful ties through the bilateral talks without fail."

Many observers doubt that Mr Kim has any intention of giving up his small nuclear arsenal and his form of words suggests that any final resolution is still a long way off. But it represents a softening of North Korea’s earlier furious statement that it would never return to the Chinese-hosted Six Party Talks, after Beijing joined fellow members of the United Nations Security Council in condemning its launch of a long-range rocket in April.

“Our efforts to attain the goal of de-nuclearising the peninsula remain unchanged,” KCNA quoted him as telling Mr Wen, who spent three days in Pyongyang. “The de-nuclearisation of the peninsula was the behest of [North Korea’s founder and Mr Kim’s father] President Kim Il Sung … the Six Party Talks are also included in the multilateral talks.”