The United States sought China's help in persuading its long-time ally North Korea to abandon nuclear weapons, sending its envoy to Beijing on Wednesday as part of a campaign to press the North. The US envoy for North Korea policy, Stephen Bosworth, met South Korean officials in Seoul before heading to China. Washington hopes talks on dismantling North Korea's nuclear work can start soon, though a breakthrough may prove elusive.
North Korea issued a statement demanding what it described as "unconditional" talks with the South and calling for an end to any actions that could cause one side to provoke the other on the divided peninsula. But it was uncertain the South would heed any such call less than two months after the North bombarded a South Korean island off disputed waters, killing four people.
North Korea's reclusive and often unpredictable leaders have made repeated pledges in the past to regional powers on doing away with its nuclear programme with little practical result. "We demand unconditional talks between responsible authorities (of the South and the North)," the North's KCNA news agency quoted the statement, issued jointly in unusual fashion by the government, the ruling Workers' Party of Korea and other organisations.
Tension on the Korean peninsula rose to its highest levels since the 1950-53 Korean War after last year's sinking of a Southern ship which killed 46 sailors, the exchange of artillery fire around the southern island, revelations of nuclear activity by the North and threats of war.
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