Mongolia urges North Korea talks envoys to show trust

ULAN BATOR, July 22 (Reuters) Resource-rich Mongolia, hosting isolated North Korea's No 2 leader on a four-day visit, urged delegates to protracted talks on North Korea's nuclear programme today to start trusting one another.

Mongolia, a former Soviet satellite locked between Russia and China, unusually has diplomatic relations with energy-starved Communist North Korea and its ideological rival, capitalist South Korea.

Multi-party talks on how to end North Korea's nuclear weapons programme wound up on Friday in Beijing without setting any deadline. The talks have dragged on for years, bogged down by brittle relations between the two protagonists, the United States and North Korea.

''Countries participating in the six-party talks need to trust each other and, based on the principle of considering what will be profitable for the other party, make compromises to reach a solution,'' Mongolian Foreign Minister Enkhbold said in a television interview.

''We consider the mechanism of the six-party talks to have potential to become a mechanism that will deepen security and cooperation in the North East Asia region in the future.'' Delegates from the two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and China met for three days in Beijing and the chief US envoy said he still hoped a second disarmament phase could be completed this year.

North Korea has signed deals with Mongolia, involving trade, sea transport, health and science and the exchange of labour, on the first visit by a high-ranking North Korean official to Ulan Bator since 1988.

Kim Yong-nam, North Korea's No. 2 leader, arrived in Mongolia on Friday for a four-day visit and met President Nambariin Enkhbayar.

''As of today, I don't know whether there are Mongolians who would consider working in North Korea, but we have North Korean labour and in the future there will be a great need for professional, good workers,'' Enkhbold said.

Enkhbayar also offered Ulan Bator as a venue for meetings on the North Korean nuclear issue and regional summits on such topics as the impact of global warming on Northeast Asia, local media said.

Kim was scheduled to visit a herder's family and attend a local cultural fair today.

Kim, president of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, is to travel on to visit Algeria and Ethiopia, North Korea's KCNA news agency reported earlier.

Mongolia, where nearly half the 2.5 million population are nomadic herders, overthrew decades of Soviet dominance in 1991.

REUTERS SG VV1118