China Envoy Delivers Message to N. Korea

By JAE-SOON CHANG

SEOUL, South Korea – A Chinese envoy met with North Korea’s leader Thursday amid worries the country would test another nuclear device, and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited South Korea and said America wasn’t trying to whip up tensions with the North.

“We want to leave open the path of negotiation. We don’t want the crisis to escalate,” Rice told reporters, adding that she hoped the Chinese mission was successful in getting Pyongyang to scuttle its nuclear program.

Hopes were also high that China could discourage the North from carrying out an apparent threat to stage a second atomic blast because Beijing has long been Pyongyang’s closest ally and biggest trading partner.

The Chinese mission met with reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and delivered a message from China’s president, Hu Jintao, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters in Beijing. It was the highest-level Chinese visit to its isolated ally since the Oct. 9 nuclear test.

Liu said the visit was “very significant,” but he had no details about the message. But he said the envoys had “in-depth discussions on China-North Korea relations as well as the prevailing situation on the Korean Peninsula.”

Liu added, “We hope China’s diplomatic efforts … will bear fruit.”

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said in a brief report the Chinese mission included State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan, Beijing’s nuclear envoy Wu Dawei and Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo.

Washington hoped that Tang, a former foreign minister, delivered a stern warning to the North Koreans about more atomic blasts, said a senior U.S. official speaking to reporters on Rice’s plane as she traveled to Seoul from Tokyo.

“I’m pretty convinced that the Chinese will have a very strong message about future tests,” the official said, adding that the United States wasn’t informed ahead of time by Beijing of that mission. The official spoke on condition of anonymity, due to the sensitivity of the issue.

U.S. media have reported that satellite images showed suspicious activity at a suspected North Korean nuclear site.

The North’s nuclear test last week presented a serious challenge to U.S.-South Korean ties, which have long been strained by fundamental differences about how to deal with Pyongyang. The U.S. has called for a tougher line, while South Korea has been reluctant to take moves that could inflame tensions.

The official traveling with Rice said the U.S. would try to avoid giving the South Koreans specific suggestions about how to deal with the North.

“They don’t want to be seen as being pushed,” the official said.

Rice met South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon, who warned earlier Thursday that a second North Korean nuclear test would trigger a “much more serious” global response. Ban, slated to be the next U.N. secretary-general, also said Pyongyang shouldn’t make further moves that would “aggravate the situation.”

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that Seoul would bolster inspections of cargo heading to North Korea and halt subsidies to a joint tourism project in the North.

The Unification Ministry couldn’t immediately verify the report, and Ban didn’t confirm it during a news conference with Rice.

North Korea contends it needs nuclear weapons to counter U.S. aggression. The United States has repeatedly said it does not intend to attack the North or topple its communist government.

While visiting Tokyo on Wednesday, Rice said the U.S. was willing to use its full military might to defend Japan in light of the North’s nuclear test. She also sought to assure Asian countries there is no need to jump into a nuclear arms race.

Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso drew a firm line against his nation developing a nuclear bomb, after he met with Rice on Wednesday in Tokyo.

Rice also reaffirmed U.S. President George W. Bush’s pledge, made hours after North Korea’s underground test blast, “that the United States has the will and the capability to meet the full range – and I underscore the full range – of its deterrent and security commitments to Japan.”

In Washington, Bush told ABC News that if the U.S. learned North Korea was about to transfer nuclear technology to others, the communist nation would face “a grave consequence.” He did not elaborate.

“I want the leader to understand – the leader of North Korea to understand that he’ll be held to account,” Bush said.

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Associated Press writer Audra Ang in Beijing and Anne Gearan and Bo-Mi Lim in Seoul contributed to this report.