NKorea's Kim Jong-il meets China foreign minister

BEIJING, July 3 (Reuters) Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi met North Korean leader Kim Jong-il today, conveying a personal message from China's President Hu Jintao, in a show of cooperation amid uncertainty over Pyongyang's disarmament plans.

Yang, who arrived in Pyongyang yesterday, earlier met the country's foreign minister Pak Ui-chun and premier Kim Yong-il for talks that stressed hopes for closer ties even as neighbours wait for North Korea to shut a nuclear reactor.

No details were available about Yang's meeting with Kim, which was briefly reported by Pyongyang's KCNA news agency.

KCNA described their talk as ''cordial'' and said Yang presented Kim with a gift, but it gave no specifics of Hu's message.

The communist neighbours appeared eager to stress harmony after deep tensions over the North's nuclear weapons ambitions.

''Both sides positively evaluated bilateral relations,'' Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said of Yang's meetings with the North's foreign minister and premier. ''They agreed to strengthen diplomatic dialogue and consultation.'' The meetings came as officials in Washington say the North may hold off implementing a February deal offering it fuel aid in return for shutting its Yongbyon reactor, which can make plutonium for nuclear weapons.

Reclusive Kim rarely meets visiting dignitaries, but has held discussions with envoys from China and South Korea in recent years that have sometimes helped ease tensions.

''Because of our historic ties, it's not that unusual for Kim Jong-il to meet Chinese foreign ministers,'' said Zhang Liangui, an expert on North Korea at the Central Party School, a thinktank in Beijing.

''But also bilateral relations were badly hurt by North Korea's nuclear test last year, and I think both sides believe its time to strengthen ties. Kim grasps that point.'' China supported the North during its 1950-53 war against the South and US-led forces and is still a key supplier of aid.

CONSULTATION AND DIALOGUE Qin told a regular news conference that Yang would ''express China's consistent stance on using peaceful means and consultation and dialogue to resolve the Korean peninsula nuclear issue''.

Yang, on his first visit as foreign minister to Beijing's isolated neighbour, is expected to leave tomorrow.

His trip follows a visit by officials from the UN's nuclear watchdog last week after North Korea agreed to move ahead on the disarmament-for-aid deal reached at six-party talks in Beijing.

Those talks bring together North and South Korea, the United States, China, Japan and Russia.

The agreement stalled over some 25 million dollar in North Korean funds which a Macau bank had frozen under US pressure. Pyongyang demanded that it receive the money before proceeding, but it took weeks for US officials to work out how to send it.

Chief US negotiator Christopher Hill said last week he wanted Pyongyang to close Yongbyon before holding a new round of six-country talks, possibly next week.

But Washington officials told Reuters that Pyongyang had told South Korea, which is providing the oil, and the International Atomic Energy Agency that it wanted at least some of the aid before closing the reactor.

Zhang, the analyst, said Yang ''almost certainly has specific suggestions for how to move the process forward''.

Yang's discussions in Pyongyang also covered expanding trade ties, said Qin.

China has turned to the North for raw materials for its industrial boom, but trade has been frustrated by inefficiency and distrust.

In the first five months of 2007, China's imports from the North reached 233 million dollar in value, a jump of 42.9 per cent on the same period last year. Its exports to the North grew by a slower 6.4 per cent to 476 million dollar, according to Chinese customs statistics.

REUTERS GT PM1817