<p>Kim’s position on China’s proposal for urgent talks among the chief delegates to the stalled six-party talks on North Korea’s denuclearisation was conveyed to Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo during his December 8-9 visit to Pyongyang as part of China’s diplomatic efforts to ease tensions on the peninsula, sources said on Tuesday.<br /><br />China’s proposal has met with a less-than-enthusiastic response in Washington, Seoul and Tokyo, which want North Korea to first cease its provocative actions and take positive steps toward denuclearisation.<br /><br />But the sources said Kim rejected such imposition of conditions for the China-proposed six-way crisis talks.<br /><br />Earlier on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu Jiang told reporters at a regular press briefing that in Dai’s meetings in Pyongyang, the North Korean side reacted with a “positive attitude” to China’s proposal.<br /><br />Dai travelled to the North Korea’s capital amid heightened tensions in the wake of its deadly shelling of a South Korean island on November 23 and the revelation that the North has completed a new uranium enrichment facility at its Yongbyon nuclear complex. Since those developments, China has been under strong pressure to rein in its traditional ally.</p>
<p>Kim’s position on China’s proposal for urgent talks among the chief delegates to the stalled six-party talks on North Korea’s denuclearisation was conveyed to Chinese State Councilor Dai Bingguo during his December 8-9 visit to Pyongyang as part of China’s diplomatic efforts to ease tensions on the peninsula, sources said on Tuesday.<br /><br />China’s proposal has met with a less-than-enthusiastic response in Washington, Seoul and Tokyo, which want North Korea to first cease its provocative actions and take positive steps toward denuclearisation.<br /><br />But the sources said Kim rejected such imposition of conditions for the China-proposed six-way crisis talks.<br /><br />Earlier on Tuesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu Jiang told reporters at a regular press briefing that in Dai’s meetings in Pyongyang, the North Korean side reacted with a “positive attitude” to China’s proposal.<br /><br />Dai travelled to the North Korea’s capital amid heightened tensions in the wake of its deadly shelling of a South Korean island on November 23 and the revelation that the North has completed a new uranium enrichment facility at its Yongbyon nuclear complex. Since those developments, China has been under strong pressure to rein in its traditional ally.</p>