No apology from Kim Jong-Il for N-test: China

A South Korean newspaper had reported that the North Korean leader expressed regret for the nuclear test.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il did not apologise to China for his nation's nuclear test, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.

HT Image

"I have not heard of Kim Jong-Il apologising," Liu Jianchao told reporters when asked about a press report that the reclusive leader had expressed regret about the October 9 test during a meeting last week with a Chinese envoy.

South Korean newspaper, The Chosun Ilbo, reported on Friday last week that Kim expressed regret for the test in talks a day earlier with Tang Jiaxuan, a special envoy of Chinese President Hu Jintao.

"Chairman Kim conveyed his sorry feelings about the nuclear test," Chosun, the largest-circulation paper in South Korea, quoted a diplomatic source in Beijing as saying.

"If the United States makes concessions to some degree, so will we, be it either at the bilateral level or the six-party talks," Kim was quoted as saying when he met the delegation on Thursday last week.