Korea should be nuclear-free, Kim tells China envoy

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il restated Pyongyang's goal of ridding the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons when he met a visiting senior Chinese envoy, Chinese state media reported on Tuesday.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il restated Pyongyang's goal of ridding the Korean peninsula of nuclear weapons when he met a visiting senior Chinese envoy, Chinese state media reported on Tuesday.

HT Image

Wang Jiarui, in Pyongyang on an apparent mission to kickstart six-nation talks aimed at ending the North's nuclear drive, met Kim on Monday and delivered a message from Chinese President Hu Jintao, Xinhua news agency reported.

Kim "reiterated on Monday the country's persistent stance to realise the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" in the talks with Wang, head of the Communist Party's international department, the report said.

"The sincerity of relevant parties to resume the six-party talks is very important," it quoted Kim as saying, without indicating whether North Korea planned to comes back to the long-stalled talks hosted by China.