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Hu, Roh discuss North Korean nuclear issue

By P. S. Suryanarayana

The South Korean President, Roh Moo-hyun (right), and the Chinese President, Hu Jintao , in Beijing on Monday. — AP

SINGAPORE July 7. The Chinese President, Hu Jintao, held talks with his South Korean counterpart, Roh Moo-hyun, in Beijing today and underlined the importance of promoting ties bewteen Beijing and Seoul in the regional and global context.

Mr. Hu said he believed that Mr. Roh's visit would help raise the level of trust and understanding on the bilateral front. The North Korean nuclear question and the possibility of South Korea extending a helping hand to China for the Beijing Olympics of 2008 and the Shanghai World Expo of 2010 figured in the talks prominently.

While China made no immediate comment on the discussions on North Korean and on bilateral ties, the South Korean side said the two leaders agreed to "promote full-scale cooperative partnership'' in various fields including "security and economy''.

The `economy' dimension included high-tech frontier areas with reference to Pyongyang's efforts to make and deploy nuclear weapons. Mr. Roh said, after the meeting, that South Korea asked China to ``continue wielding influence over North Korea so that the reclusive nation would not take actions that would worsen the security situation on the (Korean) peninsula''.

With China being committed to the idea of a non-nuclearised Korean peninsula, Mr. Roh is understood to have focussed on the need to enlarge the framework of trilateral talks so that South Korea and other allies of the U.S. could also participate in the parleys aimed at restraining Pyongyang.

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