S Korea's Roh in China for talks on defiant North

BEIJING, Oct 13: South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun arrived in Beijing today for talks to try to find a response to North Korea's nuclear test, China and South Korea having the greatest potential sway over defiant Pyongyang.

Mr Roh and Chinese President Hu Jintao have seen their policies of engagement with the North shaken by the North's boast on Monday that it had conducted a nuclear test, and both are now reassessing their approach.

But, in an interview with the China Youth Daily, South Korea's ambassador to China, Kim Ha-joong, said the priority was still to bring the North back to six-country talks aimed at ending its nuclear ambitions.

Pyongyang has boycotted the talks, which also include Japan, the United States and Russia, for more than a year.

South Korea hoped today's talks with Chinese leaders could become ''an important turning point for resolving the North Korean nuclear issue'', Kim said.

Roh's meeting with Hu during the one-day visit to Beijing take place as the UN Security Council considers a US-proposed package of sanctions to punish Pyongyang for its reported test.

A new US draft resolution circulated to Security Council members on Thursday retained stringent economic and weapons sanctions against North Korea, but -- after resistance from China in particular -- specifically ruled out military force.

North Korea's escalation of tension, and the inability so far of Beijing and Seoul to stop it, highlights the growing frustration in Pyongyang's two neighbours, despite their economic and political influence on the isolated communist state.

''It has become more difficult than ever for China and South Korea to influence the North so that it doesn't worsen the situation,'' said one Seoul government official, who asked not to be named.

The two countries were likely to approve some form of UN action, although both are anxious not to back Pyongyang into a corner, fearing instability that could trigger on their borders.

The two leaders were likely to discuss how to tell the North -- convincingly and without provocation -- that it was a mistake to have conducted a nuclear test, South Korean media quoted another government official as saying.

South Korea was seeking ''result-oriented sanctions'', Seoul's Yonhap news agency quoted the official as saying.

''I think we need to talk about sanctions that will bring about the result that South Korea and China want, not some emotional response on the spur of the moment.'' North Korea has said it would consider tough UN measures as tantamount to a declaration of war and would respond in kind.

Communist North Korea and the capitalist South are still technically at war because their 1950-53 hostilities ended with an armistice rather than a peace treaty.

REUTERS