DPRK, China talk denuclearization

N Korea: Authorities from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and China met to analyze ways to speed up the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, official sources said on Saturday.

A delegation headed by North Korean Deputy Foreign Minister Kim Kye Gwan met with top Chinese officials during a visit to Beijing on Tuesday, according to a Foreign Ministry spokesperson quoted by the news agency KCNA.

The DPRK delegation visited Beijing at the invitation of Wu Dawei, special representative of the Chinese government for Korean peninsula affairs, including the six-party talks on denuclearization in that region.

According to the source, the measures to build confidence among all parties include the conclusion of a peace treaty, a proposal on which the DPRK often insists when meeting with US officials, the lift of sanctions and the resumption of denuclearization talks.

Pyongyang withdrew from the negotiations in April 2009 as a result of punitive measures that Washington promoted in the UN Security Council after questioning Korea's launch of a satellite with peaceful ends.

The United States, Russia, Japan and South Korea also participate in the talks.

These new contacts in Beijing were preceded by a visit to Korea by the head of the International Relations Department of the Communist Party of China, Wang Jiarui, to whom North Korean leader Kim Jong Il repeated that his Government's goal is to denuclearize the peninsula.

Pyongyang, Prensa Latina